Experimental Investigation of Local Temperature Increase in Disk Surfaces of Hard Disk Drives Due to Laser Heating During Thermally Assisted Magnetic Recording

摘要

In this study, a novel method was developed to evaluate the local temperature increase under steady-state conditions on disk surfaces of hard disk drives due to laser heating during thermally assisted magnetic recording (TAMR). In particular, we evaluated changes in the refractive index and the extinction coefficient of disk substrates due to laser heating by varying the laser power, and determined the relationship between the laser power and the changes in these optical constants. Simultaneously, test disks were heated using a conventional heater, under heating conditions equivalent to those associated with laser heating, by varying the temperature. We evaluated the changes in the optical characteristics of the disk substrates due to heating, and formulated a relationship between the temperature and the changes in the optical characteristics. Then, the local temperature increase due to laser heating under steady-state conditions was evaluated by calibrating both sets of experimental results. In addition, the temperature increase was compared with the numerical simulation results, and good agreement was observed between the experimental and the simulation results. Thus, it was confirmed that, this method is useful and effective for estimating the temperature increase under steady-state conditions in disk surfaces of hard disk drives due to laser heating during TAMR. This method is also a first step toward understanding the occurrence of temperature phenomena in TAMR systems.