Investigation of tribological and read-write performance of textured sliders

Texturing of magnetic recording sliders is a promising way to improve the tribological performance of the head/disk interface. However, texturing of sliders may cause deterioration of the read-write performance and care must be taken during texturing to prevent damage of the read-write element. In this study, texturing of sliders was performed after positioning a mica mask over the read-write element for protection from the plasma. After texturing, the tribological and read-write performance of the slider was evaluated and compared with the tribological and magnetic performance of the same slider prior to texturing. The results show that no degradation of the read-write element occurred and that the tribological performance of the slider after texturing was better than before texturing.