Ring head and single pole head recording performance on 3D random SOMA media

Abstract Currently, self-organized magnetic array (SOMA) is a non-oriented media, with randomly distributed easy axis directions. We investigate the recording performance of SOMA under two different head types—Ring Head (RH) and single pole head (SPH). Our results show an interesting dependence of the recorded transition pattern on the field strength of RH, where a weak RH field generates longitudinal transition pattern and a strong RH field generates a perpendicular transition pattern in the media. The SPH only generates perpendicular transition patterns and has a higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) than that of the RH.