Synchrotron X-ray measurements were made of a set of Co-Cr-Pt media which had been grown onto NiP/Al substrates using various base pressures. Grazing incidence geometry was used to eliminate the large background scatter which arose from the underlayers and the amorphous substrate. The percentage of stacking faults was found to increase with increasing base pressure, and varied from 9 to 30% for samples grown using 10-8 and 10-4Torr, respectively. It was also found that the in-plane c-axis orientation was destroyed when the sample was grown at a pressure of 10-4Torr. The structural differences could be correlated with the magnetic properties of the media.

Measurement of Stacking Fault Densities in CoCrPt Thin Film Media using Grazing Incidence X-Ray Scattering. L.Holloway, H.Laidler: Journal of Applied Physics, 2000, 87[9], 5690-2