An Fe—Co—Al alloy magnetic thin film contains, in terms of atomic ratio, 20% to 30% Co and 1.5% to 2.5% Al. The Fe—Co—Al alloy magnetic thin film has a crystallographic orientation such that the (100) plane is parallel to a substrate surface and the <100> direction is perpendicular to the substrate surface. The Fe—Co—Al alloy magnetic thin film has good magnetic properties, that is, a magnetization of 1440 emu/cc or more, a coercive force of less than 100 Oe, a damping factor of less than 0.01, and an FMR linewidth ΔH at 30 GHz of less than 70 Oe.

The present invention relates to a magnetic recording medium including a substrate; an underlayer laminated upon the substrate; and a magnetic layer laminated upon the underlayer, wherein the underlayer includes a first underlayer containing a compound represented by a following general formula: MgO.sub.(1-X), where X is within a range of 0.07 to 0.25, the magnetic layer includes a first magnetic layer containing an alloy having a L1.sub.0 structure, and the alloy having the L1.sub.0 structure includes B, and the first underlayer is in contact with the first magnetic layer.

An apparatus has a main pole layer of magnetic material, a second layer of magnetic material, a first gap layer of non-magnetic material between the main pole layer and the second layer of magnetic material, and a second gap layer of non-magnetic material disposed between the main pole layer and the second layer of magnetic material. The second gap layer of non-magnetic material can be directly adjacent to the second layer of magnetic material. In accordance with one embodiment, this allows the gap to serve as a non-magnetic seed for the second layer of magnetic material. A method of manufacturing such a device is also described.

A stacked structure is positioned on a nonmagnetic metal layer. The stacked structure includes a ferromagnetic layer and an intermediate layer interposed between the nonmagnetic metal layer and the ferromagnetic layer. The intermediate layer includes a NiAlX alloy layer represented by Formula (1): Ni.sub.γ1Al.sub.γ2X.sub.γ3 . . . (1), [X indicates one or more elements selected from the group consisting of Si, Sc, Ti, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Cu, Zr, Nb, and Ta, and satisfies an expression of 0<γ<0.5 in a case of γ=γ3/(γ1+γ2+γ3)].

A magnetic core powder including granular powder A of Fe-based, magnetic, crystalline metal material and granular powder B of Fe-based, magnetic, amorphous metal material; the particle size d50A of granular powder A at a cumulative frequency of 50 volume % being 0.5 μm or more and 7.0 μm or less, and the particle size d50B of granular powder B at a cumulative frequency of 50 volume % being more than 15.0 μm, in a cumulative distribution curve showing the relation between particle size and cumulative frequency from the smaller particle size side, determined by a laser diffraction method; the magnetic core powder meeting (d90M−d10M)/d50M of 1.6 or more and 6.0 or less, d10M being a particle size at a cumulative frequency of 10 volume %, d50M being a particle size at a cumulative frequency of 50 volume %, and d90M being a particle size at a cumulative frequency of 90 volume %.

The present invention relates to a magnetic recording medium including a substrate; an underlayer laminated upon the substrate; and a magnetic layer laminated upon the underlayer, wherein the underlayer includes a first underlayer containing a compound represented by a following general formula: MgO.sub.(1-X), where X is within a range of 0.07 to 0.25, the magnetic layer includes a first magnetic layer containing an alloy having a L1.sub.0 structure, and the alloy having the L1.sub.0 structure includes B, and the first underlayer is in contact with the first magnetic layer.

A stacked structure is positioned on a nonmagnetic metal layer. The stacked structure includes a ferromagnetic layer and an intermediate layer interposed between the nonmagnetic metal layer and the ferromagnetic layer. The intermediate layer includes a NiAlX alloy layer represented by Formula (1): Ni.sub.γ1Al.sub.γ2X.sub.γ3 . . . (1), [X indicates one or more elements selected from the group consisting of Si, Sc, Ti, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Cu, Zr, Nb, and Ta, and satisfies an expression of 0<γ<0.5 in a case of γ=γ3/(γ1+γ2+γ3)].

An FeCoAl alloy magnetic thin film contains, in terms of atomic ratio, 20% to 30% Co and 1.5% to 2.5% Al. The FeCoAl alloy magnetic thin film has a crystallographic orientation such that the (100) plane is parallel to a substrate surface and the <100> direction is perpendicular to the substrate surface. The FeCoAl alloy magnetic thin film has good magnetic properties, that is, a magnetization of 1440 emu/cc or more, a coercive force of less than 100 Oe, a damping factor of less than 0.01, and an FMR linewidth H at 30 GHz of less than 70 Oe.

A stacked structure is positioned on a nonmagnetic metal layer. The stacked structure includes a ferromagnetic layer and an intermediate layer interposed between the nonmagnetic metal layer and the ferromagnetic layer. The intermediate layer includes a NiAlX alloy layer represented by Formula (1): Ni.sub.1Al.sub.2X.sub.3 . . . (1), [X indicates one or more elements selected from the group consisting of Si, Sc, Ti, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Cu, Zr, Nb, and Ta, and satisfies an expression of 0<<0.5 in a case of =3/(1+2+3)].

Various methods for attaching a crystalline write pole onto an amorphous substrate and the resulting structures are described in detail herein. Further, the resulting structure may have a magnetic moment exceeding 2.4 Tesla. Still further, methods for depositing an epitaxial crystalline write pole on a crystalline seed or template material to ensure that the phase of the write pole is consistent with the high moment phase of the template material are also described in detail herein.