Patent ID: 7846565

Claim:
A magnetic recording disk drive comprising: a patterned magnetic recording disk comprising: a substrate comprising material and having a generally planar surface and a plurality of spaced-apart pillars extending generally perpendicularly from said surface, the pillars having sidewalls and ends and being arranged on the substrate in a plurality of generally concentric circular tracks; a recording layer having perpendicular magnetic anisotropy on the ends of the pillars, the recording layer being formed of a material comprising one or more elements selected from the group consisting of Co, Fe, Pt, Pd and Ni; nonmagnetic regions at said surface between said pillars, said nonmagnetic regions comprising a compound of at least one of said recording layer elements and at least one element from the material of said substrate; and a capping layer on said nonmagnetic regions and the sidewalls of said pillars, the capping layer being formed of a material not substantially chemically reactive with the substrate material; a drive motor for rotating the disk; a write head for magnetizing the recording layer on the ends of the pillars; a read head for detecting the magnetization of the recording layer on the ends of the pillars; and an actuator connected to the write head and read head for moving the write head and read head to selected tracks.