Taking a Fresh Look at Disjoining Pressure of Lubricants at Slider-Disk Interfaces

As the clearances in disk drives approach subnanometer values, accurately predicting lubricant behavior is becoming more critical to designing reliable slider-disk interfaces. Central to any analysis of lubricant in disk drives is the disjoining pressure of the lubricant films on the disk and slider surfaces. This paper reviews current measurement techniques of the disjoining pressure of the lubricants used in disk drives and theoretical expressions of the disjoining pressure as a function of lubricant thickness. This paper also discusses what disjoining pressure analyses will be needed for future disk drive technologies.