Laser-assisted mechanical texturing of magnetic media

Mechanical texturing is the dominant technique for texturing magnetic media and is widely used in current hard disk drive manufacturing processes. This technique possesses the advantages of easy operation and low cost. However, it has an inherent disadvantage since mechanical texturing leads to jagged profiles randomly generated on hard disk surfaces, which precludes its further use in low-fly-height cases. A laser-assisted process working at near-threshold fluences for mechanical texturing was proposed to buff the irregular profiles of mechanical textures formed on Ni-P disk surfaces using a KrF excimer laser (λ=248 nm,τ=23 ns). This process, based on selective melting of the Ni-P surfaces due to inhomogeneous deposition of laser energy, was found to be capable of improving the surface characteristics of mechanically textured Ni-P disks. VSM and XRD analyses demonstrated that magnetic and structural properties of the Ni-P surfaces would not be affected in a detrimental way so as to influence the recording features of the magnetic media after laser buffing. Received: 28 November 2000 / Accepted: 12 December 2000 / Published online: 3 April 2001