Abstract
The laminated soft layer (LSL) that comprises the granular [CoPtCr- SiO2 /Pt] N multilayers with perpendicular magnetization is designed to reduce the switching field of exchange coupled composite (ECC) media. The magnetic simulation shows that the reduction in the switching field can be optimized by changing the coupling strength between the adjacent CoPtCr- SiO2 layers in LSL. The reversal mechanism of ECC media with LSL depends on the bilayers number N of [CoPtCr- SiO2 /Pt] N. Both simulation and experiments reveal that the domain-wall assisting reversal strongly depends on the thickness of LSL. By properly adjusting the coupling strength inside the LSL, the switching and saturation fields can be significantly reduced at a limited thickness of the soft layer due to decreased domain-wall length by the Pt lamination. © 2009 American Institute of Physics.