UC San Diego

The touch-down and take-off characteristics of a typical pico-type magnetic recording slider is investigated as a function of pressure level and groove dimensions of discrete track recording (DTR) media. Keeping the ambient pressure constant, we found that the touch-down velocity was higher for DTR disks than for “smooth” disks without discrete tracks. Likewise, the “ambient” touch-down pressure at constant velocity was found to be higher for DTR disks than for smooth media. The hysteresis between touch-down and take-off velocity and touch-down and take-off ambient pressure was found to be larger for DTR media than for smooth media. Start/stop tests on discrete track media were performed to investigate the effect of grooves of discrete track media on the tribology of the head/disk interface.