A magnetic recording medium includes a rigid substrate, an amorphous soft magnetic underlayer (SUL) on the substrate, a dead magnetic layer on the SUL, a seed layer on the dead magnetic layer, and a magnetic recording layer (MRL) on the seed layer. The dead magnetic layer is configured to provide an interdiffusion region between the amorphous SUL and seed layer with a saturation magnetic moment per unit area less than 510.sup.5 electromagnetic unit (emu)/cm.sup.2, and to produce a recording medium having an increase in tracks per inch (TPI) without significant reduction in bits per inch (BPI), and a net increase in areal density capacity (ADC) relative to a recoding medium that does not have the dead magnetic layer.

A perpendicular magnetic recording medium is disclosed in which crystal axis orientation dispersion, crystal grain diameter, and crystal grain diameter dispersion in a magnetic recording layer are reduced. The perpendicular magnetic recording medium has a structure having, stacked sequentially on a non-magnetic substrate, at least an amorphous underlayer, a lower orientation control layer made of Ru or Ru alloy of an hcp structure, an upper orientation control layer that is made of alloy containing an element selected from the group consisting of Co and Ni and an element selected from the group consisting of Cr, W, and Mo and that has an fcc or hcp structure, an intermediate layer, and a magnetic recording layer.

A heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) medium includes a substrate, a bi-layer, a heat-sink layer, and a magnetic-recording layer. The bi-layer includes a seed layer disposed on the substrate, and a thermal-transport-control layer (TTCL) disposed on seed layer. The heat-sink layer is disposed on the TTCL; and the magnetic-recording layer is disposed on the heat-sink layer. The bi-layer is configured to enable use of a 50% thinner heat-sink layer that allows use of a reduced operating current of a laser in HAMR write operations while maintaining about the same write performance parameters as a HAMR medium that includes a thermal-barrier layer (TBL) and twice as thick heat-sink layer. A HAMR data-storage device that incorporates the HAMR medium within a HAMR disk, and a method for making the HAMR medium are also described.

One aspect of a perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) media stack includes two intermediate layers, and a spacer layer formed between the two intermediate layers, wherein a surface energy of the spacer layer is lower than a surface energy of the two intermediate layers.

According to one embodiment, a magnetic recording medium includes an orientation control layer formed on a non-magnetic substrate, the orientation control layer made of a Ni alloy or Ag alloy having fcc structure, a non-magnetic seed layer made of Ag, Ge, and a metal X selected from the group consisting of Al, Mg, Au, and Ti, a non-magnetic intermediate layer made of Ru or Ru alloy, and a magnetic recording layer. The orientation control layer is in contact with the non-magnetic seed layer.

According to one embodiment, a perpendicular magnetic recording medium has an arrangement obtained by sequentially stacking a nonmagnetic substrate, a soft magnetic underlayer, a nonmagnetic seed layer containing silver grains having an fcc structure and an amorphous germanium grain boundary formed between the silver grains, a reaction barrier layer containing 90 at % or more of silver or aluminum and having a thickness of 2 nm or less, a nonmagnetic interlayer formed on the reaction barrier layer and made of ruthenium or a ruthenium alloy, and a perpendicular magnetic recording layer.