Takashi Toyoguchi

Ultrathin amorphous C:H overcoats by pCVD on thin film media

A summary of the material and tribological properties of amorphous carbon films for the overcoat of thin film media is presented. Two families of film are considered. One is the family of sputtered DLC film including amorphous carbon, amorphous hydrogenated, and nitrogenated carbon films, which are all widely used as overcoats for commercially available thin film media. The other film is amorphous hydrogenated carbon film, which is deposited by hot filament plasma CVD and is being developed for next generation overcoats.

Properties of tetrahedral amorphous carbon film by filtered cathodic arc deposition for disk overcoat

Properties of an amorphous carbon film by filtered cathodic arc (FCA) deposition were studied. It was found that the properties of the film hardly changed by deposition conditions and that nitrogen doping into the film was effective for controlling the film properties. The amount of the sp/sup 3/ bonding in the film was decreased with nitrogen content, thus the hardness also decreased. The adhesion of lubricant to the carbon film was improved by nitrogen doping. The films by FCA deposition have high durability and can be expected as ultra thin disk overcoat for the next generation.

TRIBOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF ULTRATHIN a-C:H OVERCOAT ON A MAGNETIC HARD DISK

The durability of the carbon thin film on magnetic hard disk has become increasingly important due to the reduced head to disk spacing. Amorphous hydrogenated carbon (a-C: H) films formed by plasma chemical vapor deposition (p-CVD) show superior tribological properties on magnetic hard disk. We need p-CVD deposition system with hot filament plasma source and toluence as a precursor material. In this paper, the material characterization and the tribological properties of a few nonometers thick a-C:H films by p-CVD are discussed by using XPS and Raman scattering spectroscopy, and pin-on-disk sliding test.