Reduction of Media Noise in Thin Film Metal Media by Lamination

The properties of laminated films of longitudinal Co-alloy media have been - investigated. Significant reductions in the media noise are observed compared with single layer films of the same total thickness, while the signal amplitude is unaffected. There are at least two reasons for this improved performance. Thin media layers exhibit inherently better signal-to-media-noise ratios which are retained when several thin films are separated by non-magnetic interlayers. A laminated media structure also offers a media noise advantage since noise sources in the individual magnetic layers can be independent from one another. Our analysis shows that both mechanisms are required to explain our results. © 1990 IEEE