Role of boron on grain sizes and magnetic correlation lengths in recording media as determined by soft x-ray scattering

We have measured the chemical grain sizes and magnetic correlation lengths in CoCr-based magnetic recording media films using resonant soft x-ray small-angle scattering. We find that the addition of boron, while leading to slightly smaller physical grains, dramatically reduces the magnetic correlation length. These results show that B additions effectively act to suppress intergranular magnetic exchange via segregation to the grain boundaries. © 2002 American Institute of Physics.