AbstractMechanical and tribological properties of soft magnetic thin films with high permeability and low coercivity are very important for the application of these films in high-density recording heads. This paper reports our experimental observations on these important properties of FeTaN thin film head materials. Hardness(H) and Young’s modulus(E) for FeTaN sputtered films were determined by nanoindentation. Wear resistance of these films against commercial magnetic tapes was measured with a sphere-on-flat wear tester. The experimental results indicate that the FeTa films can be hardened when nitrogen is introduced. It was found in this study that the thermal stability of the mechanical properties such as hardness of thin films containing nitrogen is better than that of the film without nitrogen. However, our experiments also revealed that the wear resistance of FeTaN films decreases when the concentration of nitrogen increases and the hardness of the worn surface at a wear scar is lower than that of the unworn surface.
Fixed-Abrasive Grinding of Thin-Film Recording Heads Final Report CRADA No. TC-0498-93
