Manipulation of magnetism by electrical field in a real recording system

We report an electrically controlled magnetism in a real recording system with CoCrPt-TiO2 nanocomposite thin films as recording medium. We show that in a spin-stand test, with a small voltage of 3 V applied across the head-media gap during recording, a 13% reduction of saturation current was observed and the read back waveforms showed sharper transitions. These account for the 3 dB improvement in read back signal-noise-ratio of the written magnetic information. The improved recording performance is mainly attributed to the reduction of anisotropy of the recording medium in the presence of electrical field. Simulations were carried out to understand the magnetization reversal process under applied electric and magnetic fields.