| AVS 58th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Tribology Focus Topic | Wednesday Sessions |
| Session TR-WeA |
| Session: | Emerging Interfaces of Tribological Importance |
| Presenter: | Frederick Spada, University of California, San Diego |
| Authors: | F.E. Spada, University of California, San Diego D.F. Paul, Physical Electronics J.S. Hammond, Physical Electronics |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
The 2008 International Magnetic Tape Storage Roadmap1 projects that the total magnetic spacing between the recording head and the tape magnetic layer must decrease from the current 43 nm spacing to about 23 nm by the year 2018 in order for tape to maintain its cost advantage as an information storage medium. Because tape drives are contact recording systems, interactions between head materials and components in the tape magnetic layer can detrimentally affect the head-tape separation via deposit formation on head surfaces as well as preferential erosion of critical recording head elements. Understanding the nature of these interactions is therefore essential for mitigating undesirable increases in the magnetic spacing. This study shows that deposition and erosion phenomena in tape heads can be varied at the local level by changing the electrical configuration of adjacent pole tip structures in multichannel heads, and that the composition of the head deposits depends on the electrical configuration of the pole tips. Using atomic force and electric force microscopy, we show that conductive deposits form on the “trailing edge” of pole tips which are electrically connected to earth ground or to the head substrate. The conductive deposits become non-conductive further “downstream” from the pole tips. Deposits adjacent to electrically isolated poles are always non-conductive. Auger analysis shows that the surfaces of the conductive deposit regions contain high levels of Fe and Co, and small amounts of P and Y, whereas the surfaces of the non-conductive deposits contain predominantly P and Y, with very low levels of Fe. Because all of these elements are present in the magnetic coating of the tape, and because the compositions of the deposits on heads having NiFe pole tips is similar to those on heads having CoZrTa pole tips, these results suggest that the deposits originate from components in the tape and not from metallic structures in the tape head.
1. International Magnetic Tape Roadmap, Information Storage Industry Consortium, September, 2008.
*Supported by the Information Storage Industry Consortium Tape Program