MAGNETIC RECORDING MEDIUM

摘要

A superior wear-resistant coating is provided for metallic magnetic recording layers, where the improved coating is a hard carbon layer that is strongly bound to the underlying metallic magnetic recording layer by an intermediate layer of silicon. The silicon layer can be very thin, with a minimum thickness of a few atomic layers, and provides strong adhesion between the hard carbon protective layer and the metallic magnetic recording layer. A preferred technique for depositing both the intermediate silicon layer and the hard carbon layer is plasma deposition, since both of these depositions can be performed in the same reactor without breaking vacuum.