Tribology of textured sliders in near contact situations

Island-type texture was fabricated on two types of picosliders using plasma sputtering and ion beam etching. Laser-Doppler interferometry was used to investigate the vibrations of the textured and untextured sliders in near contact situations. Lubricant redistribution on the disk surface caused by slider/disk interactions was investigated using scanning ellipsometry [surface reflectance analyzer (SRA)]. The results show that texture on the slider surfaces reduces in-plane and out-of-plane slider vibrations. Textured sliders were found to cause less lubricant depletion on the disk surface than untextured sliders.