Opportunities and Challenges of Atomistic Modeling to Simulate Amorphous Carbon Properties for Computer Hard-Disk Applications

Amorphous carbon is used as coating material for computer hard-disks magnetic media and recording heads. There has been significant improvement in understanding amorphous carbon's properties based on experimental observations. High data storage density requirement in the coming years necessitates the use of an ultrathin carbon overcoat while maintaining or enhancing its tribological, thermal, optical, and corrosion properties for better recording performance and reliability. Along with experimental techniques, atomistic simulations can be a useful tool to provide fundamental understanding, especially in the cases where experiments are not adequate. This review gives an overview of how atomistic modeling can provide insights into amorphous carbon properties and discuss challenges for such modeling.