Abstract
The spring constant and the damping ratio of the liquid lubricant bridge formed between an SPM tip and a magnetic disk were measured using a novel method. In this method, the liquid bridge is formed by the tip being pulled up from the disk surface coated with liquid lubricant film, and then the tip is stepped up or down at a certain height while the liquid bridge is maintained. The vibrations in the liquid bridge induced by the steps are measured and these vibration waveforms are fitted to a damping oscillation model to calculate the viscoelasticity of the liquid bridge.
