Magnetization reversal mechanism in CoCr media for perpendicular recording

It has recently been shown [1] that hysteresis loss as a function of the direction of the applied field can be used as a criteria to determine the reversal mechanism in CoCr films. In this paper we present hysteresis loss (Wh/Wh(|_)) and orientation ratio (OR) as function of the amplitude and direction of the applied field for low and high Hc(|_)/Hk sputtered CoCr films. The reversal behaviour depends strongly on the amplitude and direction of the field. The presence of an initial layer has an important influence on the type of reversal. The rotational mechanism governs the switching in high Hc(|_)/Hk films while the domain-wall reversal acts in the low coercivity film.