Patent ID: 8541116

Claim:
A patterned perpendicular magnetic recording medium comprising: a substrate; a soft underlayer (SUL) of soft magnetically permeable material on the substrate; a plurality of discrete islands comprising perpendicular magnetic recording material; an exchange bridge layer of soft magnetically permeable material between the SUL and the islands and connecting the islands with said soft magnetically permeable material, the exchange bridge layer being patterned into a plurality of discrete pedestals, each pedestal being located below an island, the exchange bridge material having a saturation magnetic flux density greater than the saturation magnetic flux density of the magnetic recording material; a coupling control layer (CCL) of nonmagnetic or weakly ferromagnetic material on each pedestal below its island for controlling ferromagnetic coupling between the perpendicular magnetic recording material in its island and the exchange bridge material; and a nonmagnetic exchange break layer (EBL) between the SUL and the exchange bridge layer for breaking magnetic exchange coupling between the exchange bridge layer and the SUL.