Wear and hardness of carbon overcoats on magnetic recording sliders

Wear of diamond-like carbon (DLC) overcoats on magnetic recording sliders d uring contact start stop (CSS) testing is investigated by monitoring change s in the depths of ion-milled "trenches" on the air bearing surface. In add ition, nano-indentation, scratch tests, and Raman spectroscopy were used to characterize the DLC films. The correlation between hardness and scratch r esistance of DLC films on Si and Al2O3-TiC coupons as well as hardness and wear resistance of DLC overcoats on sliders during CSS resting is studied. DLC films that exhibit higher durability in scratch tests are found to also exhibit higher durability in CSS tests. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.