A Novel Approach of Carbon Embedding in Magnetic Media for Future Head/Disk Interface

Author

Samad, Mohammed Abdul ; Xiong, Shaomin ; Pan, Liang ; Yang, Hyunsoo ; Sinha, Sujeet Kumar ; Bogy, David B. ; Bhatia, Charanjit Singh

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Nat. Univ. of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

Volume

48

Issue

5

fYear

2012

fDate

5/1/2012 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1807

Lastpage

1812

Abstract

A novel method of carbon embedding (≤1 nm) is used as a surface modification technique to produce overcoat free media surfaces. The filtered cathodic vacuum arc technique at ion energy of 90 eV is used to embed carbon in the top surface of a ~25 nm iron/platinum (FePt) film. Transport of ions in matter (TRIM) simulations and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) are used to study carbon embedding profiles and surface chemical composition. XPS results show that carbon embedding is effective in improving the oxidation resistance of FePt. Conductive atomic force microscopy (CAFM) is done on samples after exposure to a 780 nm IR laser with an effective output power of 40 mW to study the thermal stability. No change in the conductivity is observed in the case of carbon embedded FePt surface. Ball-on-disk tribological tests are conducted at a contact pressure of 0.26 GPa on bare and modified FePt surfaces. It is observed that the coefficient of friction is reduced considerably from a value of approximately 0.8 to ~0.27 after the surface modification.

Keywords

X-ray photoelectron spectra; atomic force microscopy; carbon; chemical analysis; coatings; electrical conductivity; friction; iron alloys; laser materials processing; magnetic thin films; materials testing; mechanical contact; metallic thin films; oxidation; platinum alloys; surface composition; thermal stability; vacuum arcs; C-FePt; CAFM; FePt; IR laser; TRIM simulations; X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy; XPS; ball-on-disk tribological tests; carbon embedding; conductive atomic force microscopy; contact pressure; electrical conductivity; electron volt energy 90 eV; filtered cathodic vacuum arc technique; friction coefficient; head-disk interface; ion energy; iron-platinum film; magnetic media; overcoat free media surfaces; oxidation resistance; power 40 mW; pressure 0.26 GPa; surface chemical composition; surface modification technique; thermal stability; transport-of-ions in matter simulations; wavelength 780 nm; Carbon; Iron; Laser stability; Media; Surface resistance; Surface topography; Thermal stability; Carbon embedding; FCVA; FePt; magnetic media;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMAG.2011.2170826

Filename

6187782