Method for manufacturing magnetic recording medium and magnetic recording medium

Abstract

A magnetic recording medium and a method for manufacturing the same are provided, which provide high surface recording density and high recording/reading performance. The magnetic recording medium is manufactured by forming an intermediate protective layer between a continuous recording layer and a mask layer, dividing the continuous recording layer to form divided recording elements and removing the mask layer while leaving the intermediate protective layer on the top of the divided recording elements. Further, gaps between the divided recording elements are filled with a non-magnetic material while leaving the intermediate protective layer on the top of the divided recording elements.

1 . A method for manufacturing a magnetic recording medium comprising: 
 a mask layer processing step of partially removing a mask layer of an intermediate product in a predetermined pattern, the intermediate product including a substrate, a continuous recording layer formed over the substrate, an intermediate protective layer formed over the continuous recording layer and the mask layer formed over the intermediate protective layer;    a continuous recording layer processing step of removing a part of the continuous recording layer exposed from the mask layer to divide the continuous recording layer into a number of divided recording elements in the predetermined pattern and removing the mask layer over the intermediate protective layer while leaving the intermediate protective layer on the top of each of the divided recording elements; and    a non-magnetic material filling step of filling gaps between the divided recording elements with a non-magnetic material,    the continuous recording layer processing step and the non-magnetic material filling step being performed in this order.    
   
   
       2 . A method for manufacturing a magnetic recording medium comprising: 
 a mask layer processing step of partially removing a mask layer of an intermediate product in a predetermined pattern, the intermediate product including a substrate, a continuous recording layer formed over the substrate, an intermediate protective layer formed over the continuous recording layer and the mask layer formed over the intermediate protective layer;    a continuous recording layer processing step of removing a part of the continuous recording layer exposed from the mask layer to divide the continuous recording layer into a number of divided recording elements in the predetermined pattern; and    a non-magnetic material filling step of filling gaps between the divided recording elements with a non-magnetic material while leaving the intermediate protective layer on the top of each of the divided recording elements,    the continuous recording layer processing step and the non-magnetic material filling step being performed in this order.