The effect of slider on lubricant loss and redistribution [HDDs]

Summary form only given. The behavior of a molecularly thin lubricant film under a flying head has recently gained increasing attention due to its critical role in determining the tribological performance, as well as the recording performance, of a head-disk interface. It is recognized that the slider-assisted lubricant transfer and redistribution can take many forms, such as depletion, moguls, waviness-like features, and all accompanied by slider lubricant pickup. It is therefore crucial to understand the role of a slider in the lubricant transfer such that the design rules can be applied to minimize these detrimental effects. In this work, disks with step-profile lubricant film were utilized to study the effects of slider geometry and ABS on lubricant redistribution under an on-track flying condition.