Slider-disk interaction and tribologically induced signal decay

The thermal energy generated during slider-disk interaction is another factor which leads to the decay of recorded magnetic signal on disk media. As technology moves to sub-10 nm spaced head-disk systems, high spindle speed, ramp load/unload mechanism, and high seeking speed, the likelihood of such thermal energy generation increases and so is the intensity of such interaction. Experimental results presented in this work indicate that signal can be decayed by slider disk contact in load/unload operation, even when the contact cannot be detected easily by AE sensor attached at the end of the suspension arm. A special disk is proposed and used for the visualization of potential tribological decay. The disk uses a layer of magneto-optical material with low Curie temperature to replace the magnetic layer used in magnetic media and record the traces left by potential sources of tribologically induced decay. The method and corresponding setup were used successfully in the study of the effectiveness of anti-particulate designs and the identification of the worst case among loading and unloading operations at high longitudinal load/unload speed.