Lubricant pickup under laser irradiation

Abstract

Hard disk lubricants play important roles at head-disk interfaces. Heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) is a promising approach for enabling large increases in the storage density of hard disk drives. Under HAMR conditions, lubricated thin films on hard disk surfaces should satisfy all tribological properties. This paper studies the reliability of several types of lubricants on thin-film disks, under HAMR laser irradiation conditions. Through the study and comparison of the lubricants' physical and chemical properties, lubricant pick-up status and composition of the picked-up lubricant, the related tribological properties have been explained and the design and development of new lubricants for HAMR application have been explored. © 2011 IEEE.