Wear resistant coatings for contact recording applications

To achieve low stiction and low interface wear in contact recording, a hard coating having a high hardness, elastic modulus, and scratch resistance is required. In this study, mechanical and tribological characterization of carbon coatings deposited by various deposition techniques and SiC has been carried out. Based on nanoindentation and microscratch studies, it is concluded that cathodic arc carbon coatings exhibit the highest hardness, elastic modulus, scratch resistance, and wear resistance.