Hitachi researchers are also exploring another extension to perpendicular magnetic recording. In thermally-assisted recording, magnetic grains can be made smaller while still resisting thermal fluctuations at room temperature. As the name suggests, thermal-assisted recording uses a laser to heat up the media while the magnetic head is writing the smaller bits of data. This allows the use of media that is magnetically stable at room temperature, with the very small magnetic grains needed for high-density storage.

Hitachi GST: Extending perpendicular magnetic recording