Nanoscale dimensions on hard disk media

COLL 255

B. G. Demczyk, J. Gao, Z. F. Li, J. Liu, and M. Zheng. MMC Technology, a Maxtor Company, 2001 Fortune Drive, San Hose, CA 95131
The advent of disk drive flying heights approaching 10nm has rendered features and inhomogeneities at the nanoscale increasingly critical to the drive’s magnetic and tribological performance. In this work, we have employed scanning probe microscopy (SPM) techniques to characterize the topography, surface magnetics and viscoelestic properties at this level of resolution. In particular, correlations have been made with more macroscopic measurements, such as contact-to-fly transition time, head take-off and read/write signal to noise ratio. In general, we have found that disk texture asperities and lubrication layer redistribution, as revealed by SPM, provide additional insight in guiding next-generation disk designs.