Ultra-thin overcoats for the head/disk interface tribology

Areal density in magnetic storage is increasing at a blistering pace of 60% annually. Recently IBM announced its mobile product with the industry highest areal density of 2.64 Gb/In{sup 2}. The areal density demonstrations have shown up to 5 Gb/In{sup 2} possible. Reaching higher areal density targets dictate that magnetic spacing between heads and disks be reduced. For the example of a 10 Gb/In{sup 2} areal density goal, the magnetic spacing should be {approx}25 nm. In budgeting this magnetic spacing, it is required that disk and slider air bearing surface overcoats thickness be reduced to 5 nm range. Present choice of carbon overcoat in the magnetic storage hard disk drive industry is sputter deposited, hydrogenated carbon (CH{sub x}) with thickness in the range of 12-15 nm on heads and disks. Novel overcoats such as nitrogenated carbon (CN{sub x}) and cathodic arc carbon films are being developed for future applications. Cathodic arc deposition forms ultra-thin amorphous hard carbon films of high sp{sup 3} content, high hardness, and low coefficient of friction. These properties make it of great interest for head/disk interface application, in particular for contact recording. In many cases, the tribological properties of the head disk interface could be improved by factors up to ten applying cathodic arc overcoats to the slider or disk surface. This paper reviews the results of cathodic arc ultra-thin (2-10 nm) carbon overcoats for head/disk interface tribological applications