Microcracks of the thin-film head alumina: “L” cracks and “U” cracks

Author

Chekanov, A.S. ; Low, T.S. ; Alli, S. ; Kolosov, O. ; Briggs, A.

Author_Institution

Data Storage Inst., Nat. Univ. of Singapore, Singapore

Volume

32

Issue

5

fYear

1996

fDate

9/1/1996 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

3696

Lastpage

3698

Abstract

Two different types of microcracks in thin film head alumina were observed: cracks initiated at the alumina edges growing toward the head pole tips and cracks initiated at the head pole tip area and growing towards the leading edge of the alumina. Thermally induced cracks may cause degradation of magnetic head read/write performance due to the damage of the pole tip gap or corrosion of the head pole tips. Data from Ultrasonic AFM (UFM) indicate the difference in the subsurface structure of the observed cracks of the alumina

Keywords

alumina; atomic force microscopy; magnetic heads; magnetic recording; magnetic thin film devices; microcracks; Al₂O₃; L cracks; U cracks; corrosion; damage; degradation; magnetic head; microcracks; pole tip; read/write performance; subsurface structure; thermally induced cracks; thin-film head alumina; ultrasonic AFM; Corrosion; Magnetic heads; Magnetic materials; Magnetic recording; Memory; Resists; Space vector pulse width modulation; Surfaces; Thermal degradation; Transistors;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.538807

Filename

538807