Abstract
To investigate the effect of masked UV irradiation (UV patterning) on molecularly thin liquid lubricant films coated over magnetic disk surfaces, distribution of 2-nm-thick functional lubricant films was examined using molecular dynamics simulations in which UV irradiation is modeled by enhancing the polar interaction between lubricant end groups and disk surface. We found that masked UV irradiation induced molecular flow from non-irradiated region to irradiated region, and thereby a concave-convex surface structure in the equilibrium state. We also conformed that the internal kinetic and potential energies of the lubricant films drastically increased immediately after UV irradiation, and then gradually decreased accompanying with the molecular flow.
