Abstract
This paper describes the effect of ultra-thin liquid lubricant films on air bearing dynamics and flyability of less than 10 nm spacing flying head sliders in hard disk drives. In particular, the effect of non-uniform lubricant film distributions on head/disk interface dynamics are studied. The dynamics of sliders is monitored using Acoustic Emission (AE) and the interactions between the slider and disk are investigated. The disks before and after test are also examined with a scanning micro-ellipsometer. Complicated slider responses were observed and clarified. In addition, it is found that the periodic lubricant film thickness modulations or re-distributions caused by the slider-disk contact interactions could be observed.
