International Business Machines Corporation

James J Mayerle

Ajay Johary

Christopher Guild Keller

Thomas A Gregory

John C Shen

David A Edmonson

Kenneth E Johnson

Arthur Carl Wall

Bruce E Kennedy

Ronald G Lecander

A thin film magnetic recording disk that has a layer of lubricant bonded thereto is enclosed within a vapor phase lubricant system that operates to continuously apply lubricant vapors to the disk's bonded lubricant layer by operation of Langmuir kinetics. Lubricant vapors are selectively adsorbed on the disk, including regions of the disk where the bonded lubricant is either too thin or is entirely absent, thus minimizing failures that might be caused by such imperfections in the bonded lubricant layer. A reactive perfluoropolyether (PFPE) lubricant containing chemically active functional groups is substantially bonded onto the recording surface of the disk, for example by the application of heat. The mobile residue of this bonded lubricant layer may be left on the disk, to thereafter function as a non-bonded, mobile, lubricant layer covering the surface of the bonded lubricant layer. Alternately, the lubricant residue may be substantially removed by use of a solvent or other means, and a nonreactive lubricant, such as a nonreactive PFPE, may thereafter be topically applied onto the surface of the bonded lubricant layer, to function as a non-bonded, mobile, lubricant layer. A lubricant reservoir within the vapor phase lubricant system provides a supply of a volatile organic lubricant, such as stearic acid or reactive or a nonreactive PFPE. Lubricant vapors from this reservoir operate so as to continuously repair voids or thin areas in the disk's simplex layer of substantially bonded lubricant, or in the disk's duplex layer of bonded and mobile lubricant. Either one, two or three lubricants could be used in this tribological system.

Direct access storage device with vapor phase lubricant system and a

The magnetic properties of a cobalt based, thin film, magnetic recording layer are controlled, independent of controlling the process for depositing the magnetic layer itself, by the introduction of process compatible dopant gases into an argon atmosphere during the vacuum deposition (i.e. a sputtering process or an evaporation process) of a chromium based underlayer upon which the magnetic layer is subsequently deposited. The same or a different dopant may also be introduced into the magnetic layer. The process compatible dopant gases described contain oxygen, nitrogen and/or carbon, and mixtures thereof, and include the group purified air, oxygen, nitrogen, a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane and water vapor.

Underlayer doping in thin film magnetic recording media

A lubricant film for a thin-film disk is disclosed. The lubricant film comprises a monolayer of fixed lubricant bonded to the surface of the thin-film disk and a mobile lubricant in contact with the layer of fixed lubricant. The monolayer of lubricant film is applied to the thin-film in a method comprising applying a lubricant composition to the surface of a thin-film disk, then heating the thin-film disk at a sufficient temperature for a sufficient time to bond or fix a portion of the lubricant composition to the disk; to evaporate a portion of the lubricant composition from the surface of the disk; and to dispose a portion of the lubricant composition as a mobile lubricant in contact with the fixed lubricant.

Lubricant film for a thin-film disk

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Rochester, MN, United States of America

James J Mayerle