Abstract
We studied contact characteristics of a positive pressure step-slider flying over a thin-film disk rotating at a low velocity at normal pressure (LV condition) and that rotating at normal velocity at a low pressure (LP condition). Drag tests showed that there was head wear on the leading pads of the step-slider tested in LP condition, while there was no change on the pads tested in LV condition. To find the reason of above difference, we examined acoustic emission (AE) signal, friction force, and head flying characteristics in those conditions. We found that friction force is larger in LP condition than in LV condition and that the contact angle between head and disk is larger in LV condition than in LP condition. We think that the low contact angle in LP condition made the leading pads contact with disk and caused head wear.
