Experimental and Numerical Simulation Study on Low-Surface Energy Slider With Thermal Flying-Height Control Function

The effects of slider surface energy on slider dynamics were investigated with both a component-level experiment and a slider dynamics simulation with a 2-D head-disk interface model. The simulation results clearly show a reduction in the critical flying height, which was defined as the flying-height at the beginning of contact vibration, as same as a reduction in touchdown height observed in the experiment. According to the simulation results, the reduction of slider P2-mode vibration by the adhesion force in the near-contact region is considered to be effective in reducing slider touchdown height. Controlling slider surface energy is necessary for future low-flying head-disk interfaces.