Effect of head skew on edge erasure and transition noise at submicron recording track width

Cross track transition noise profiles and erase band widths were measured on a spin-stand using a 1 /spl mu/m wide focus ion beam trimmed inductive head, at different skew angles. At a 20/spl deg/ skew angle, large asymmetry about the track center in the noise profiles is observed, which is attributed to the self-overwriting of transitions near the edge on the side of the track that has a wider erase band. This self-overwriting at the track edge broadens transitions and leads to track edge percolation at high densities. This causes an effective track width reduction which shows up as an increase in the erase band width in the erase profile measurement.