Thermal Stability Evaluation of Diamond-like Carbon for Magnetic Recording Head Application using Raman Spectroscopy

Abstract

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) films were deposited on magnetic recording heads using filter cathodic arc for improvement of tribological property and corrosion protection. To increase the areal density of magnetic storage, the thickness of DLC film has to be decreased to less than few nanometers. In addition, the heat occurred at the head-disk interface during the operation can impact on the properties and protective performance of DLC films. In this work, the effect of heat on the properties of DLC films was investigated by visible Raman spectroscopy. The Raman spectra of DLC film as a function of heating temperature and time were carried out. The Raman spectra revealed that the degree of graphitization of the DLC films increased with increasing of temperature and time. The relative Raman intensity was found to decrease with possibility of sp 3 /sp 2 ratio decreasing in the films. It can be concluded that the thermal stability of DLC film degraded at high temperature environment.

Annealing Effect on Microstructure of Novel Ti Doped DLC Multilayer Films

“…The FWH of annealed films is lower than that of untreated films and the FWHMG linearly decrea with the increasing temperature up to 600 °C. These results are consistent with numer reports [42][43][44]. As the temperature increases to 800 °C, the FWHMG abruptly rises t higher value.…”