AVS 49th International Symposium
    Applied Surface Science Tuesday Sessions
       Session AS-TuM

Paper AS-TuM1
Chemical Bonding of Perfluoropolyether End Group with Carbon Overcoat Surface by Irradiating Visible Laser Light

Tuesday, November 5, 2002, 8:20 am, Room C-106

Session: Polymer Characterization
Presenter: L. Zhu, Data Storage Institute, Singapore
Authors: L. Zhu, Data Storage Institute, Singapore
J. Zhang, Data Storage Institute, Singapore
T. Liew, Data Storage Institute, Singapore
K. Ye, Data Storage Institute, Singapore
Correspondent: Click to Email
A thin lubricant film was applied on a magnetic hard disk carbon overcoat to reduce friction force, resist corrosion and minimize wear. Further treatment of the lubricant is to improve one or more of its properties for its compatibility with increasing magnetic recording densities. In this paper, we investigate the chemical bonding of perfluoropolyether lubricant molecules with carbon overcoat surface by irradiating visible laser light. A Nd:YAG laser with a wavelength of 532nm was used to irradiate the lubricant film (2 nm) on carbon overcoat surface in ambient environment. Samples were analyzed using the time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy. We found that with increasing laser energy, the ion yield of the end group CF2CH2OH decreases indicating the formation of chemical bonds of the end group with the active sites on the carbon overcoat surface. Secondary ion mapping of the laser irradiated area shows that fluorine and backbone fragments COF2 and C2OF4 are concentrated in the bonding area. This is in sharp contrast with our previous results with UV laser irradiation on the lubricant where the abundance of the end group remains almost constant with increasing laser energy and two unique backbone peaks are generated, indicating direct scission of the lubricant molecules in UV regime.