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.

Various apparatuses, systems, methods, and media are disclosed to provide a heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) medium that has a magnesium (Mg) trapping layer that is configured to mitigate Mg migration in the HAMR medium so as to prevent near field transducer (NFT) damage caused by dissociated Mg reacting with a compound used in the NFT. In one example, the HAMR medium can include a substrate, a seed layer on the substrate and including MgO, a magnetic recording layer on the seed layer, and a Mg trapping layer on the substrate and configured to mitigate Mg migration from the seed layer to a surface of the HAMR medium above the magnetic recording layer.

The magnetic recording medium includes a non-magnetic support; and a magnetic layer including a ferromagnetic powder and a binding agent on the non-magnetic support, in which a difference (S.sub.0.5−S.sub.13.5) between a spacing S.sub.0.5 measured by optical interferometry regarding a surface of the magnetic layer under a pressing force of 0.5 atm after n-hexane cleaning and a spacing S.sub.13.5 measured by optical interferometry regarding the surface of the magnetic layer under a pressing force of 13.5 atm after n-hexane cleaning is equal to or smaller than 3.0 nm, and a magnetic recording and reproducing device including this magnetic recording medium.

The magnetic recording medium includes a non-magnetic support; and a magnetic layer including a ferromagnetic powder and a binding agent on the non-magnetic support, in which a difference (S.sub.0.5−S.sub.13.5) between a spacing S.sub.0.5 measured by optical interferometry regarding a surface of the magnetic layer under a pressing force of 0.5 atm after n-hexane cleaning and a spacing S.sub.13.5 measured by optical interferometry regarding the surface of the magnetic layer under a pressing force of 13.5 atm after n-hexane cleaning is equal to or smaller than 3.0 nm, and a magnetic recording and reproducing device including this magnetic recording medium.

An insulating material-coated soft magnetic powder includes: a core particle that includes a base portion containing a soft magnetic material containing Fe as a main component and at least one of Si, Cr, and Al, and that includes an oxide film provided on a surface of the base portion and containing an oxide of at least one of Si, Cr, and Al; and an insulating film that is provided on a surface of the core particle and that contains a ceramic, in which a thickness of the insulating film is 5 nm or more and 300 nm or less, and the oxide contained in the oxide film and the ceramic contained in the insulating film are mutually diffused at an interface between the oxide film and the insulating film.

A magnetic storage apparatus includes a disk-shaped magnetic recording medium, a motor which drives and rotates the magnetic recording medium, a magnetic head, including a first magnetic head element which reads information from the magnetic recording medium, and a second magnetic head element which writes information to the magnetic recording medium, and a bias circuit which supplies a predetermined bias voltage to the first magnetic head element. The magnetic recording medium has a laminated structure including a magnetic layer disposed above a substrate, and a carbon protective layer disposed above the magnetic layer. The bias circuit supplies to the first magnetic head element a voltage which is in a range of −0.2 V to −1.0 V with respect to a potential of the magnetic recording medium.

An object is to provide a magnetic recording medium having excellent traveling stability and a thin total thickness. The present technology provides a tape-shaped magnetic recording medium including: a magnetic layer; an underlayer; a base layer; and a back layer, in which a surface on a side of the magnetic layer has a kurtosis of 3.0 or more, a surface on a side of the back layer has a kurtosis of 2.0 or more, the surface on the magnetic layer side has arithmetic average roughness R.sub.a of 2.5 nm or less, the base layer includes a polyester as a main component, the magnetic recording medium has an average thickness t.sub.T of 5.6 μm or less, the magnetic recording medium includes a lubricant, the lubricant includes a fatty acid and a fatty acid ester, and a mass ratio between the fatty acid and the fatty acid ester extracted with hexane satisfies fatty acid/fatty acid ester≤0.6, and the magnetic recording medium has pores, and the pores have an average diameter of 6 nm or more and 11 nm or less when the diameters of the pores are measured in a state where the lubricant has been removed from the magnetic recording medium and the magnetic recording medium has been dried.

A magnetic storage apparatus includes a disk-shaped magnetic recording medium, a motor which drives and rotates the magnetic recording medium, a magnetic head, including a first magnetic head element which reads information from the magnetic recording medium, and a second magnetic head element which writes information to the magnetic recording medium, and a bias circuit which supplies a predetermined bias voltage to the first magnetic head element. The magnetic recording medium has a laminated structure including a magnetic layer disposed above a substrate, and a carbon protective layer disposed above the magnetic layer. The bias circuit supplies to the first magnetic head element a voltage which is in a range of −0.2 V to −1.0 V with respect to a potential of the magnetic recording medium.

The magnetic recording medium has an arithmetic average roughness Ra of a surface of a magnetic layer is 2.2 nm or less, a fluorine concentration A obtained by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy performed on a surface of the magnetic layer at a photoelectron take-off angle of 10 degrees being 5 atom % or more and 50 atom % or less, and B, which is calculated by Equation 1 from an integrated intensity Ftotal of fragments derived from a fluorine-containing compound obtained for an entire region in a thickness direction of a cross section of the magnetic layer by line profile analysis of TOF-SIMS and an integrated intensity Fupper of fragments derived from a fluorine compound obtained for a region from the surface of the magnetic layer to an intermediate thickness in the thickness direction of the cross section, being 60% or more and 95% or less, Equation 1:B=(Fupper/Ftotal)×100.

Various apparatuses, systems, methods, and media are disclosed to provide a magnetic recording medium that capping layer doped with an effective amount of metal to control grain-to-grain exchange coupling in a capping layer. A magnetic recording medium includes a substrate, a magnetic recording layer (MRL) on the substrate, and a capping layer on the MRL. The capping layer include Co and is doped with a metal (e.g., Ru or Ta) in a range from 1 atomic percent to 5 atomic percent, inclusive.