Adsorbed Water Film and Heat Conduction from Disk to Slider in Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording

Abstract

In heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), a tiny area of magnetic recording media has to be heated up to a high temperature with laser to lower the coercivity temporarily for information to be written on the area. In a humid environment, some of the water vapor molecules adsorb on the disk surface to form a water film. In HAMR writing, the adsorbed water film on the disk surface will desorb instantly from the high-temperature laser heating area to become high-temperature high-pressure water vapor. The water vapor molecules will transfer extra heat from the high-temperature laser heating area on the disk surface to the slider, which makes the temperature of the slider surface higher in a humid environment than that in dry air. The heat transfer increases dramatically with relative humidity and with the decrease in slider–disk spacing.