Real-time Visualization of Lubricant Films on Head Slider Using an Ellipsometric Microscope

摘要

As the recording density increased in hard disk drives (HDDs), the head disk interface (HDI) spacing has been decreased to 2-3 nm during its operation. The head slider may pick up the lubricant at this contact or near-contact HDI. Therefore, a real-time visualization of lubricant thickness distribution on a slider surface is essential to study the physical mechanisms for reducing the head disk interface spacing. A vertical-objective-based ellipsometric' microscope (VEM) was presented as the effective method for real-time visualization of nm-thick lubricant films on disks with high lateral resolution. However, extinction coefficient of head slider is low, which means the intensity of reflected light may be reduced. In this report, the feasibility of VEM used for head observation is discussed, and the images of polar perfluoropolyether (PFPE) lubricant Zdol4000 applied on head slider are obtained by the current setup. It indicates that this method can be used in real-time visualization of nm-thick lubricant films on head slider.