Fluorine-ion-implanted air-bearing surface for low-friction head–disk interface

With the aim of reducing the lubricant–slider interaction by reducing slider surface energy, we fabricated several types of sliders with fluorine-ion-implanted (FII) air-bearing surfaces by using different levels of acceleration voltage for FII. With a low acceleration voltage, the fluorine-ions tended to be concentrated at shallower depths from the slider surface, and the contact angle of the water droplets was greater. The FII-treated slider showed lower touch-down height, which implies an improvement of slider stability at near-contact regime. The polar force component of the surface energy of FII-treated slider surface showed a good correlation with a thermally flying-height control heater power at touch-down. It is estimated that FII-treatment can reduce the polar force component of the surface energy and reduce the slider-lubricant interaction, resulting in a reduction of slider touch-down height.