Patent ID: 8830630

Claim:
A magnetic recording medium comprising: a stacked structure including an orientation control layer, a lower recording layer, an intermediate layer, and an upper recording layer that are sequentially stacked, wherein the lower recording layer has a coercivity higher than that of the upper recording layer, wherein the lower recording layer includes a first lower recording layer provided on a side of the orientation control layer, and a second lower recording layer provided on a side of the intermediate layer, wherein the first lower recording layer has a granular structure that includes magnetic particles including Co, Cr, and Pt, and an oxide covering a periphery of the magnetic particles, wherein the second lower recording layer has a non-granular structure that includes magnetic particles including Co, Cr, and Pt, wherein the lower recording layer includes columnar crystals continuous with crystal particles forming the orientation control layer in a direction in which the layers of the stacked structure are sequentially stacked, wherein the upper recording layer includes a first upper recording layer provided above the intermediate layer and having a granular structure, and a second upper recording layer provided above the first upper recording layer and having a non-granular structure, and wherein the intermediate layer includes a Ru alloy layer that includes a magnetic material and has a saturation magnetization of 50 emu/cc or higher.