Abstract
The current study of CoCr12Ta4/Cr longitudinal recording media combines high resolution electron microscopy (HRTEM) with nanoprobe energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and energy-filtered imaging (EFTEM) to correlate the Cr distribution with specific microstructural features. EFTEM images show Cr enrichment at grain boundaries, both random angle boundaries and 90° bicrystal boundaries. Cr segregation within grains is also observed in the elemental maps. This intragrain segregation often occurs at a series of defects that may define separately nucleated grains having 00 misorientation. Nanoprobe EDS measurements indicate that these defects contain localized concentrations of 25 to 30 % Cr. The random angle grain boundary Cr concentration occurs with a wide range, 19 to 36 at% (mean 22%) whereas the more crystallographically related 900 boundaries contain less Cr with less variation, 15 to 21 at% (mean 17% Cr). Composition profiles across grain boundaries using both nanoprobe EDS and EFTEM images show the full-width-half-maximum of the segregation to be approximately 4 nm, with Cr depleted regions next to the grain boundary having less than 7 at% Cr. The Ta concentration revealed no statistical evidence of segregation.
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Wittig, J.E., Nolan, T.P., Sinclair, R. et al. Chromium Distribution in CoCrTa/Cr Longitudinal Recording Media. MRS Online Proceedings Library 517, 211–216 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1557/PROC-517-211
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/PROC-517-211