Journal
DIAMOND AND RELATED MATERIALS
Volume 44, Issue -, Pages 100-108Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA
DOI: 10.1016/j.diamond.2014.02.011
Keywords
Head-disk interface; Corrosion; Carbon overcoat; Surface modification
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Funding
- Singapore National Research Foundation CRP [NRF-CRP-4-2008-06]
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The corrosion performance of commercial hard disk media which was subjected to bi-level surface modification has been reported. The surface treatment was carried out by bombarding the surface of the magnetic media with C+ ions at 350 eV followed by 90 eV using filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA). The energy and embedment depth of the impinging C+ ions were adjusted by applying an optimized bias to the substrate and simulated by a Stopping and Range of Ions in Matter (SRIM) code which predicted the formation of a graded atomically mixed layer at the carbon-media interface. Cross-section transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed the formation of a 1.8 nm dense nano-layered carbon overcoat structure on the surface of the media. Despite an -33% reduction in the thickness, the bi-level surface modified disk showed corrosion performance similar to that of a commercially manufactured disk with a thicker carbon overcoat of 2.7 nm. This improvement in the corrosion/oxidation resistance per unit thickness can be attributed to the formation of a dense and highly sp(3) bonded carbon layer, as revealed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman spectroscopy. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of the bi-level surface modification technique in forming an ultra-thin yet protective overcoat for future hard disks with high areal densities. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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