Spacing modulation of a slider flying across a transition between landing and data zones

The spacing modulation of a sub-25 nm fly height slider flying across a transition zone is studied in this paper. It is shown that the maximum spacing reduction occurs at the outer rail trailing edge when the slider climbs up the transition zone. The transition zone induced spacing reduction increases as the slope of the transition zone surface increases. The combination that produces the least spacing modulation is increased zone width, decreased zone height, and constant slope plane.