Abstract
Pico-sliders with nominal flying heights of 5 and 7 nm were etched using argon plasma etching. An island-type texture with a height of 4.5 nm was fabricated on the slider surface. The in-plane and out-of-plane vibrations of textured and untextured sliders were investigated using laser Doppler vibrometry (LDV) during contact start/stop. The results show that the amplitudes of both out-of-plane and in-plane vibrations are reduced as a consequence of the texture on the slider surfaces.
