The concept of percolated perpendicular media (PPM) for magnetic data storage is expected to surpass the areal storage density of 1 Tbit in -², which is regarded as the fundamental limit of conventional granular CoCrPt:oxide based recording media. PPM consist of a continuous ferromagnetic thin film with densely distributed defects acting as pinning sites for magnetic domain walls. In this study, practical realizations of PPM were fabricated by the deposition of [Co/Pt]8 multilayers with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy onto nanoperforated templates with various perforation diameters and periods. The structural defects given by the templates serve as pinning sites for the magnetic domain walls within the [Co/Pt]8 multilayers. Magnetometry at both the integral and the local level was employed to investigate the influence of the template on the magnetization reversal and the domain wall pinning. It was found, that magnetic domains can be pinned at the ultimate limit, between three adjacent pinning sites. The coercivity and the depinning field, which both are a measure for the strength of the magnetic domain wall pinning, were found to increase with increasing perforation diameter. The size of magnetic domains within the magnetic film appeared not to depend solely on the diameter of the nanoperforations or on the period of the template, but on the ration between diameter and period. By means of micromagnetic simulations it was found, that the presence of ferromagnetic material within the pinning site given supports the pinning of magnetic domain walls, compared to a pinning site that is solely given by a hole in the magnetic thin film. Investigation of the evolution of the magnetization in magnetic fields smaller than the coercive field revealed, that the energy barrier against thermally induced magnetization reversal is sufficiently large to provide long-term (> 10 years) stability of an arbitrary magnetization state. This could also be qualitatively supported by micromagnetic simulations. Static read/write tests with conventional hard disk recording heads revealed the possibility of imprinting bit patterns into the PPM under study. The minimum bit pitch that could be read back thereby depended on the period of the nanoperforated template.

The concept of percolated perpendicular media (PPM) for magnetic data storage is expected to surpass the areal storage density of 1 Tbit in -², which is regarded as the fundamental limit of conventional granular CoCrPt:oxide based recording media. PPM consist of a continuous ferromagnetic thin film with densely distributed defects acting as pinning sites for magnetic domain walls. In this study, practical realizations of PPM were fabricated by the deposition of [Co/Pt]8 multilayers with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy onto nanoperforated templates with various perforation diameters and periods. The structural defects given by the templates serve as pinning sites for the magnetic domain walls within the [Co/Pt]8 multilayers. Magnetometry at both the integral and the local level was employed to investigate the influence of the template on the magnetization reversal and the domain wall pinning. It was found, that magnetic domains can be pinned at the ultimate limit, between three adjacent pinning sites. The coercivity and the depinning field, which both are a measure for the strength of the magnetic domain wall pinning, were found to increase with increasing perforation diameter. The size of magnetic domains within the magnetic film appeared not to depend solely on the diameter of the nanoperforations or on the period of the template, but on the ration between diameter and period. By means of micromagnetic simulations it was found, that the presence of ferromagnetic material within the pinning site given supports the pinning of magnetic domain walls, compared to a pinning site that is solely given by a hole in the magnetic thin film. Investigation of the evolution of the magnetization in magnetic fields smaller than the coercive field revealed, that the energy barrier against thermally induced magnetization reversal is sufficiently large to provide long-term (> 10 years) stability of an arbitrary magnetization state. This could also be qualitatively supported by micromagnetic simulations. Static read/write tests with conventional hard disk recording heads revealed the possibility of imprinting bit patterns into the PPM under study. The minimum bit pitch that could be read back thereby depended on the period of the nanoperforated template.