Skip Navigation

Journal of Electron Microscopy 2005 54(1):1-9; doi:10.1093/jmicro/dfh047
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (1)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Shoda, K.
Right arrow Articles by Takeda, S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Shoda, K.
Right arrow Articles by Takeda, S.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© Japanese Society of Microscopy

Full-length paper

Analysis of grain boundaries in CoCrTa and CoPtCrB HDD media by analytical transmission electron microscopy

Kaoru Shoda1,*, Tohoru Matsubara1 and Seiji Takeda2

1 UBE Scientific Analysis Laboratory, Inc., Tokiwadai, Ube-shi, Yamaguchi 750-0001 and 2 Osaka University, Graduate School of Science, 1-16 Machikaneyama, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-0043, Japan

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: 27181u{at}ube-ind.co.jp

Abstract

Crystallographic structures and elemental distributions of grain boundaries in cobalt (Co)-based hard disk drive (HDD) media of CoCrTa and CoPtCrB were analysed by analytical transmission electron microscopy (TEM). CoCrTa medium had crystalline grain boundaries with extremely distorted (0002) planes of hexagonal close-packed structure. The width of grain boundaries of 1.5 nm obtained by high-resolution TEM (HRTEM) imaging agreed with that of 1.5 nm obtained by energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) mapping. The EDS analysis revealed that Cr was segregated to grain boundaries while Ta was not segregated to either grain boundaries or grains. Cobalt was retained within grains. CoPtCrB medium had amorphous grain boundaries and spots in grains. The EDS and electron energyloss spectroscopy analyses revealed that both Cr and B were segregated to grain boundaries and spots. Both Co and Pt were retained within grains. The width of the boundaries of 0.4 nm obtained by HRTEM differed from that of 1.5 nm obtained by high-angle angular dark-field scanning TEM; the former indicates the crystallographic boundary and the later corresponds to the magnetic boundary, which is significantly correlated to the magnetic properties of HDD media.

Keywords     CoCrTa, CoPtCrB, hard disk drive media, grain boundary, HAADF-STEM, EDS and EELS analyses

Received     25 January 2004, accepted 15 May 2004


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.