Head-disk interface design for in-contact recording using wet systems

The authors have investigated head-disk interface design for in-contact recording using wet systems. The design concept of the wet systems is to realize a low bouncing height of sliders by using the meniscus attractive force of the lubricant between slider and disk. The lubricant offered high wear performance at the same time. It was found that lubricants with high surface energies suppressed the bouncing height of contact sliders. A bouncing height of 3 nm was achieved for a combination of 30% contact sliders and lubricants of maleic anhydride modified polybutene. A contact slider design, with a meniscus-controlled contact pad, is proposed for contact sliders using wet systems. The bouncing of the slider was suppressed by regulating the etching depth of the meniscus-controlled contact pad. High wear performance of the in-contact recording system was confirmed by both the drag test for disks and the seek test for heads. The large readback signal and the pulse width measured at 50% amplitude (PW50) for the in-contact recording, compared with flying heads, has been demonstrated.