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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2011
Bit patterned media, including media fabricated with a gradient in composition, is being developed as a potential path to higher information storage density. The formation of metal nanopillars with 20-30 nm repeat spacing and precisely controlled magnetic properties presents a significant challenge to current fabrication methods. We have been developing cylinder forming block copolymer phases as a method to generate the desired patterns coupled with the processing steps necessary to transfer the pattern into magnetic material. This involves spin coating of the polymer on an appropriate orienting layer, annealing to allow the pattern to form by self-organization of the block copolymer, solvent processing to remove the minority domain, electrodeposition to form a hard mask, followed by ion-milling to transfer the pattern to the magnetic material. We have demonstrated each step in this process and report on the quality of the pattern achieved.