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AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsChristopher V. Jahnes, James H. Kaufman, Serhat Metin, Mohammad T. Mirzamaani, Anthony W. Wu
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A thin film metal alloy magnetic recording disk has an improved protective overcoat that creates a low level of static friction in a contact start/stop disk drive. The disk has an amorphous carbon overcoat containing a transition liquid metal interlayer (TLMI). The carbon overcoat is formed by depositing an initial amorphous carbon layer to a first thickness, then depositing an interlayer material of a low-melting point metal or metal alloy (such as In or In--Nb) while maintaining the temperature of the disk substrate above the melting point of the interlayer material, and then depositing a top additional layer of amorphous carbon. Because the initial carbon layer presents a nonwetting surface, the interlayer material "balls up" on the carbon and forms discontinuous spheres of the interlayer material. The additional top layer of carbon bonds to the initial carbon layer and to the metal or metal alloy spheres. The completed disk protective overcoat presents a continuous but textured surface of amorphous carbon for the head-disk interface in the disk drive.
A thin film magnetic recording disk comprising:
An improved contact start/stop (CSS) magnetic recording rigid disk drive wherein the improvement comprises a thin film magnetic recording disk having a protective overcoat of essentially amorphous carbon, the overcoat comprising a first layer of essentially amorphous carbon deposited directly on and in contact with the magnetic layer, a plurality of discontinuous generally rounded metal or metal alloy grains deposited on the surface of the first carbon layer, the grains being formed of a metal or an alloy of a metal selected from the group consisting of indium (In), gallium (Ga), silver (Ag), tin (Sn), aluminum (Al), gold (Au), bismuth (Bi), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), scandium (Sc), and tellurium (Te), and a second essentially amorphous carbon layer formed over the first carbon layer and the metal or metal alloy grains, whereby the second carbon layer has a generally textured surface caused by the underlying metal or metal alloy grains.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.