A heat-assisted magnetic recorder for magnetically recording information
onto a recording medium having a given recording coercive field includes
an electron beam generator and a magnetic recording head. The electron
beam generator directs an electron beam onto the recording medium in
order to locally heat a portion of the recording medium such that the
heated recording medium portion has a recording coercive field lower than
the given recording coercive field. The magnetic recording head generates
a magnetic recording field having an intensity greater than the recording
coercive field of the heated recording medium portion in order to
magnetically record information onto the heated recording medium portion.
The electron beam generator includes a plurality of carbon nanotubes
(CNTs) embedded in nanoholes of an anodic alumina template for generating
the electron beam. A heat-assisted magnetic recording method is
associated with the heat-assisted magnetic recorder.