Analytical study of touchdown characteristics of head slider for sub-nanometer-spacing high density recording disk drives

Abstract

In order to increase the recording density of magnetic disks, it is necessary to achieve a condition in which the gap between the head and the disk can be kept below 1nm with high reliability. For this purpose, it is important to clarify the mechanism of the touchdown (TD) phenomenon of the head, and to develop a method to move the head back off the disk. The author has already studied the TD characteristics of a one-degree-of-freedom slider model in which the air bearing force and the contact force act together with adhesion forces of the van der Waals force and the nano-meniscus force. In the present study, it is clarified that various TD phenomena including surfing state can be understood by considering that sliding contact on nano-asperities with monolayer lubricant causes lifting force and decreases surface attraction.