Material Transfer Inside Head Disk Interface for Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording

Abstract

Heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) promises to deliver higher storage areal density than the current perpendicular magnetic recording products. Laser heating is implemented in HAMR to achieve magnetic writing of the very high coercivity media. However, the high temperature environment creates several reliability challenges for the head disk interface (HDI). In this paper, material transfer within the HDI under HAMR recording conditions is studied. The mechanisms of material transfer are explored via experiments and modeling. This study revealed that temperature difference and mechanical interaction between the head and media are the main mechanisms for material transfer inside the HDI. Possible methods to remove the material are also discussed in this paper.