In situ measurement of the bonded film thickness of Z-Tetraol lubricant on magnetic recording media

Journal Article · Fri Oct 15 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3500321· OSTI ID:21503571

Lei, Zhu; Feng, Li ^[1]

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1. Material Science Laboratory, Recording Media Operation, Seagate Technology International, 16 Woodlands Loop, Singapore 738340 (Singapore)

Currently, the bonded film thickness of perfluoropolyether lubricant on top of magnetic recording media is measured by a two-step process. First, the media disk has to be rinsed thoroughly using a fluorocarbon solvent (for instance, Vetrel) to remove the mobile lubricant. Second, the thickness of the remaining lubricant on the media surface which is regarded as the bonded lubricant thickness is then measured either by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) or electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis. As the total lubricant thickness approaches single molecular dimension ({approx}10 A), current methods face tremendous challenge on the accuracy and sensitivity of the measurement. We studied the spectral characteristics responding to the lubricant bonding with the carbon overcoat by the time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectra and proposed to use the peak area ratio (C{sub 3}H{sub 2}F/C{sub 3}H{sub 5}O and C{sub 4}H{sub 10}O/C{sub 3}H{sub 6}O{sub 2}) to characterize the bonded Z-Tetraol lubricant that produces a direct bonded lubricant thickness measurement without the need to remove the mobile lubricant with a solvent. After taking the background signal of disks prior to bonding by UV irradiation into account, this method becomes independent of the total lubricant thickness as well as shows good correlation linearity (R{sup 2{approx}}87%) with the current FTIR method for the ratio of C{sub 4}H{sub 10}O/C{sub 3}H{sub 6}O{sub 2}.

• OSTI ID: 21503571
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 108, Issue 8; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3500321; (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC
ORGANIC
PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
BONDING
BUTANOLS
CORRELATIONS
ELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY
ETHYL ETHER
FILMS
FOURIER TRANSFORMATION
INFRARED SPECTRA
INTERFACES
LUBRICANTS
MASS SPECTRA
METHYL ACETATE
RING CURRENTS
SENSITIVITY
SOLVENTS
SURFACES
THICKNESS
TIME-OF-FLIGHT METHOD
ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION
ACETIC ACID ESTERS
ALCOHOLS
CARBOXYLIC ACID ESTERS
CURRENTS
DIMENSIONS
ELECTRIC CURRENTS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ESTERS
ETHERS
FABRICATION
HYDROXY COMPOUNDS
INTEGRAL TRANSFORMATIONS
JOINING
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
RADIATIONS
SPECTRA
SPECTROSCOPY
TRANSFORMATIONS