Method for laser texturing magnetic recording disk

A method for the laser texturing of a plurality of magnetic recording disks, comprising the steps of:

• a) exposing a rotating first disk to a texturing laser having a first laser energy level to create a plurality of texturing bumps on said first disk;
• b) determining the average bump height of said texturing bumps produced on said disk by utilizing the linear relationship:
• h=A/P1+B(Int1)+C;
• wherein h is the average bump height, A, B, C are constants, and wherein Int1 and P1 are parameters related to the average height of texturing bumps that are determined by the steps of:
• i) directing a laser light beam from a second laser onto the texturing bumps on the rotating disk, the directed second laser light beam having a diameter sufficient to cover a plurality of the texturing bumps and being oriented to strike the disk at a position such that the second laser light beam incident on the disk is reflected and diffracted by the texturing bumps;
• ii) scanning with a photodetector array the second laser's light diffracted from the bumps on the disk through a range of angles, and providing an array output signal;
• iii) generating from the array output signal a set of discrete digital values representative of the intensity of the light reflected from the bumps in the band at the like set of angles;
• iv) calculating Int1 and P1 from said set of discrete digital values, wherein Int1 is an integration of intensities over a portion of the range of angles near a first peak intensity, and wherein P1 represents the angle of location of the first peak;
• c) determining whether said average bump height is within a predetermined acceptable bump height range;
• d) determining whether to accept or reject said disk based upon said determination of whether said average bump height is within said range;
• e) adjusting the laser energy level of said texturing laser to an adjusted laser energy level when said average bump height is not within said range;
• f) exposing a rotating subsequent disk to said texturing laser having said adjusted laser energy level to create a plurality of texturing bumps on said subsequent disk;
• and
• g) repeating steps b, c, d, e and f on said subsequent disk, and further subsequent disks of a plurality of disks.