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. LaserDoppler 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.