Patent ID: 8374060

Claim:
A thermally-assisted magnetic recording method for writing data on a hard disk medium by applying a write magnetic field and heat to the hard disk medium, the hard disk medium having a magnetic recording layer, the magnetic recording layer containing a plurality of magnetic grains and a grain boundary portion that is made of a nonmagnetic material and separates the plurality of magnetic grains from each other, the method comprising: a first step of forming a moving high-temperature region in the magnetic recording layer by applying the heat to part of the hard disk medium and moving a heat-receiving site in the hard disk medium, the high-temperature region being higher in temperature than a region therearound and having a temperature equal to or higher than a maximum value of coercivity vanishing temperatures of the plurality of magnetic grains, wherein at least one of the magnetic grains that is adjacent to a rear end of the high-temperature region in a direction of movement of the high-temperature region has a coercivity of a value other than 0; and a second step of applying the write magnetic field to the hard disk medium such that the write magnetic field applied to the at least one of the magnetic grains that is adjacent to the rear end of the high-temperature region is 3 kOe or smaller in magnitude.