A heat-assisted magnetic recording head includes a near-field transducer and a heat sink. The near-field transducer includes a middle disk and a near-field emitter. The near-field emitter includes a peg and an anchor disk. The peg is configured to produce a hot spot on a proximal magnetic disk. The peg is disposed proximal to a media-facing surface of the heat-assisted magnetic recording head. The anchor disk is disposed behind the peg relative to the media-facing surface. The heat sink includes a core and a liner. The core includes a primary metal, and the liner includes a primary metal. The liner is coupled to the core and is disposed along an outer surface of the core. The middle disk is disposed between and coupled to the liner and the anchor disk. The primary metal of the liner comprises at least one of iridium, rhodium, tantalum, tungsten, or ruthenium.

A heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) medium has a multilayered underlayer between the heat-sink layer and the recording layer. One embodiment of the underlayer is a multilayer of a thermal barrier layer consisting essentially of MgO and TiO, and a seed layer containing MgO and nitrogen (N) directly on the thermal barrier layer, with the recording layer on and in contact with the seed layer. The interface between the thermal barrier layer and the seed layer contains Ti and N, some of which may be present as TiN to act as a diffusion barrier to prevent diffusion of the Ti into the recording layer. The Ti-containing thermal barrier layer has a higher thermal resistivity than the conventional MgO thermal barrier/seed layer and thus allows for reduced laser power to the recording layer while still achieving a high thermal gradient at the recording layer.

A heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) disk has a magnetic recording layer (typically a FePt chemically-ordered alloy), a seed-thermal barrier layer (typically MgO) below the recording layer, a heat-sink layer, and an optical-coupling multilayer of alternating plasmonic and non-plasmonic materials between the heat-sink layer and the seed-thermal barrier layer. Unlike a heat sink layer, the multilayer has very low in-plane and out-of-plane thermal conductivity and thus does not function as a heat sink layer. The multilayer's low thermal conductivity allows the multilayer to also function as a thermal barrier. Due to the plasmonic materials in the multilayer it provides excellent optical coupling with the near-field transducer (NFT) of the HAMR disk drive.

HAMR media with a magnetic recording layer having a reduced Curie temperature and methods of fabricating the HAMR media are provided. One such HAMR medium includes a substrate, a heat sink layer on the substrate, an interlayer on the heat sink layer, and a multi-layer magnetic recording layer on the interlayer. In such case, the multi-layer magnetic recording layer includes a first magnetic recording layer including an alloy selected from FePtX and CoPtX, where X is a material selected from the group consisting of Cu, Ni, and combinations thereof, a second magnetic recording layer on the first magnetic recording layer and having at least one material different from the materials of the first magnetic recording layer, and a third magnetic recording layer on the second magnetic recording layer and having at least one material different from the materials of the first magnetic recording layer.

A heat-assisted magnetic recording medium includes: a substrate; an underlayer; and a magnetic layer including an alloy having an L1.sub.0 structure, wherein the underlayer includes, from the substrate side, a bcc underlayer including a substance having a bcc structure, a first oxide layer that is in contact with the bcc underlayer, and a second oxide layer that is in contact with the magnetic layer. The bcc underlayer, the first oxide layer, and the second oxide layer are stacked in the recited order. The first oxide layer and the second oxide layer include magnesium oxide, and the second oxide layer further includes one or more compounds selected from the group consisting of vanadium oxide, vanadium nitride, and vanadium carbide.

A magnetic recording medium includes a substrate, an underlayer, and a magnetic layer that are arranged in this order. The magnetic layer has a granular structure including magnetic grains having a L1.sub.0 crystal structure, and grain boundary parts having a volume fraction in a range of 25 volume % to 50 volume %. The magnetic grains have a c-axis orientation with respect to the substrate. The grain boundary parts include a material having a lattice constant in a range of 0.30 nm to 0.36 nm, or in a range of 0.60 nm to 0.72 nm.

A heat-assisted magnetic recording device includes a granular magnetic recording layer and a thermal absorption layer formed on top of the magnetic recording layer. The thermal absorption layer is patterned to include rows extending in a cross-track direction of the magnetic media, each adjacent pair of the rows being separated from one another by an insulating material.

Described is an apparatus which comprises: a heat spreading layer; a first transition metal layer adjacent to the heat spreading layer; and a magnetic recording layer adjacent to the first transition metal layer. Described is an apparatus which comprises: a first electrode; a magnetic junction having a free magnet; and one or more layers of Jahn-Teller material adjacent to the first electrode and the free magnet of the magnetic junction.

A heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) disk has a magnetic recording layer (typically a FePt chemically-ordered alloy), a seed-thermal barrier layer (typically MgO) below the recording layer, a heat-sink layer, and an optical-coupling multilayer of alternating plasmonic and non-plasmonic materials between the heat-sink layer and the seed-thermal barrier layer. Unlike a heat sink layer, the multilayer has very low in-plane and out-of-plane thermal conductivity and thus does not function as a heat sink layer. The multilayer's low thermal conductivity allows the multilayer to also function as a thermal barrier. Due to the plasmonic materials in the multilayer it provides excellent optical coupling with the near-field transducer (NFT) of the HAMR disk drive.

A magnetic recording medium includes a substrate, an underlayer, and a magnetic layer that are arranged in this order. The magnetic layer has a granular structure including magnetic grains having a L1.sub.0 crystal structure, and grain boundary parts having a volume fraction in a range of 25 volume % to 50 volume %. The magnetic grains have a c-axis orientation with respect to the substrate. The grain boundary parts include a material having a lattice constant in a range of 0.30 nm to 0.36 nm, or in a range of 0.60 nm to 0.72 nm.