SURFACE DAMAGE OF MAGNETIC RECORDING MEDIA UNDER DYNAMIC SLIDING CONTACT
In order to achieve higher recording density in hard disk drive (HDD), the head-media-spacing (HMS)
becomes smaller and smaller. Furthermore, recently a thermal actuation Under recent hard disk drive (HDD) industry design requirements, such as smaller head-media-spacing (HMS) and heat assisted magnetic storage (HAMR), the head-disk interface is more susceptible to dynamic surface contact, and thermal effects can play a significant role in contact behaviors. Our objective of this study is to investigate thermal-mechanical wear mechanism of magnetic disk surface. To achieve this, we did dynamic contact experiments with different sliding contact speeds, while keeping other conditions identical. Then we did Raman spectroscopy characterization for the contact area to investigate the material degradation mode. The results show higher contact speed would cause earlier failure of magnetic media surface, because higher frictional heat generation and more DLC material degradation. Then Raman characterization has been conducted to verify the thermal-mechanical wear mechanism.