Recording media having protective overcoats of highly tetrahedral amorphous carbon and methods for their production
First Claim
1. Magnetic recording media comprising:
- . a substrate;
a magnetic layer disposed over the substrate; and
a protective layer disposed over the magnetic layer, the protective layer comprising a highly tetrahedral amorphous carbon.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The invention provides systems and methods for the deposition of an improved diamond-like carbon material, particularly for the production of magnetic recording media. The diamond-like carbon material of the present invention is highly tetrahedral, that is, it features a large number of the sp3 carbon-carbon bonds which are found within a diamond crystal lattice. The material is also amorphous, providing a combination of short-range order with long-range disorder, and can be deposited as films which are ultrasmooth and continuous at thicknesses substantially lower than known amorphous carbon coating materials. The carbon protective coatings of the present invention will often be hydrogenated. In a preferred method for depositing of these materials, capacitive coupling forms a highly uniform, selectively energized stream of ions from a dense, inductively ionized plasma. Such inductive ionization is enhanced by a relatively slow moving (or “quasi-static”) magnetic field, which promotes resonant ionization and ion beam homogenization.
1 Citation
22 Claims
-
1. Magnetic recording media comprising:
- .
a substrate;
a magnetic layer disposed over the substrate; and
a protective layer disposed over the magnetic layer, the protective layer comprising a highly tetrahedral amorphous carbon. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
- .
-
13. A method for enhancing an ion beam, the ion beam produced by inductively ionizing a plasma within a plasma volume and capacitatively coupling the plasma so as to form a stream of ions from within the plasma volume, the method comprising:
moving a magnetic field through the plasma volume to promote even resonant inductive ionization and homogenize the ion beam. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17)
- 18. An inductive ionization resonance system for use with an ion-beam source including an antenna disposed about a plasma volume for inductively ionizing a plasma therein, a coupling electrode exposed to the plasma volume, and an extraction electrode disposed over an opening of the plasma volume so that the extraction electrode is capable of extracting a stream of ions of the plasma therethrough by capacitive coupling, the system comprising at least one coil disposed adjacent the plasma volume, the at least one coil capable of moving a transverse magnetic field through the plasma volume to homogenize the stream of ions.
-
22. Magnetic recording media comprising:
-
a substrate;
a magnetic layer disposed over the substrate; and
a protective layer disposed over the magnetic layer, the protective layer comprising a highly tetrahedral amorphous carbon having a density of more than 2.5 g/cm3.
-
Specification