Patent ID: 8449730

Claim:
A process of fabricating a perpendicular magnetic recording medium, the method comprising: forming a metallic buffer layer with a (002) texture on an underlayer, the underlayer having a (001) texture, wherein the forming of the metallic buffer layer comprises forming the metallic buffer layer using a deposition process performed at a temperature below 100° C., wherein the metallic buffer layer comprises Ag; after forming the metallic buffer layer, forming an oxide buffer layer on top of the metallic buffer layer, wherein the oxide buffer layer comprises oxide; after forming the oxide buffer layer on top of the metallic buffer layer, forming a perpendicular magnetic recording layer on top of the metallic buffer layer, wherein formation of the perpendicular magnetic recording layer comprises forming the magnetic recording layer using a deposition process performed at a temperature between 300° C. and 500° C., wherein the deposition process for forming a perpendicular magnetic recording layer results in a transportation of at least a portion of the Ag from the metallic buffer layer to a top surface of the magnetic recording layer, and wherein the magnetic recording layer comprises: magnetic material grains with a L1 0 crystalline structure and with a c-axis perpendicular to a plane of the perpendicular magnetic recording layer; and oxide grain boundaries for the magnetic material grains, wherein the transportation of at least a portion of the Ag of the metallic buffer layer enhances atomic ordering of the L1 0 crystalline structure of the magnetic material grains; and after forming the perpendicular magnetic recording layer, removing Ag of the metallic buffer layer from the top surface of the perpendicular magnetic recording layer.