A study of the lubricant displacement under a flying head slider caused by slider-disk interaction

Even if no contact occurs between the disk and slider, lubricant flow is affected by several factors correlated with head-disk interaction. In particular, airbearing pressure and disk surface topography have significant effects on thin lubricant films, and they may possibly cause uneven lubricant distribution. In this paper, we study the lube displacement under a flying head slider caused by slider-disk interaction, especially the effects of air bearing pressure and disk surface topography, which we detected by executing flyability tests using an optical surface analyzer.