A study of the lubricant displacement under a flying head slider caused by slider-disk interaction

Abstract

Even if no contact occurs between the disk and slider, lubricant flow is affected by several factors correlated with head-disk interaction. In particular, air-bearing pressure and disk surface topography have significant effects on thin lubricant films, and they may possibly cause uneven lubricant distribution. In this paper, we study the lube displacement under a flying head slider caused by slider-disk interaction, especially the effects of air bearing pressure and disk surface topography, which we detected by executing flyability tests using an optical surface analyzer.