Patent ID: 8252367

Claim:
A method of forming a soft underlayer structure for magnetic media, comprising: (a) providing a pinning layer having a pinning direction; (b) depositing a first soft underlayer (SUL 1 ) having a thickness of less than 15 nm on the pinning layer and applying a first cathode field to the SUL 1 , the first cathode field having a first direction, and magnetically pinning the SUL 1 to the pinning layer, such that the pinning direction of the pinning layer is parallel to the first direction of the first cathode field applied during deposition of the SUL 1 ; (c) depositing an intermediate layer having a thickness of up to about 0.7 nm on the SUL 1 ; and (d) depositing a second soft underlayer (SUL 2 ) having a thickness of less than 15 nm on the intermediate layer and applying a second cathode field to the SUL 2 , the second cathode field having a second direction that is opposite to the first direction, and the second direction is in a same direction as an anti-parallel exchange field (Hex) of the SUL 2 , to form an anti-parallel coupled soft underlayer film having uniaxial anisotropy in a radial direction.