Takayuki Musashi

Chemically modified air-bearing surface for the near-contact regime

A chemically modified air-bearing surface (ABS) was experimentally investigated. Its surface energy was lowered by bonding nonpolar lube to the surface using ultraviolet light. The altered surface was shown to decrease the van der Waals force and to have good flyability under a 10-nm flying height (FH).

Chemically modified air-bearing surface for the near contact regime - part 1: concept and characterization

In order to increase the areal density of hard disk drives, it is crucial to reduce the physical spacing between the read-write head and the magnetic layer. Currently, the head-disk clearance decreases to less than 10 nm. At such a clearance the thickness of the lubricant on a hard disk contributes more than 10% of the clearance. Consequently, the lubricant pickup phenomenon becomes a serious problem. One solution for achieving good flying ability under 10 nm would be to lower the surface energy of the air-bearing surface of the slider. Reducing the surface energy of ABS provides the promise of good flying ability. In order to confirm an improvement in slider performance, take-off velocity (TOV) was examined. As a result, TOV changed roughly from 3000 rpm to 2000 rpm. The subsequent paper shows improvements in the sliders performance.