Investigations of Light Contact and Lube-Surfing State With Electrical Current

It was reported that a thermal flying height control (TFC) slider often exhibits a strong bouncing vibration at the touchdown power (TDP), which is suddenly suppressed when the TFC power is increased beyond the TDP. This phenomenon is inferred to be the lube-surfing state during which the slider´s dynamics are damped out by the lubricant, and its attitude adjusted so as to achieve a second stable flying state with a tiny bulge surfing in the lubricant. In this paper, the measured current with respect to a full view of the second stable flying state during touchdown, lube-surfing, and takeoff processes of the specific TFC slider will be characterized for in-depth understanding of light lubricant contact.