Evaluation of Perpendicular Magnetic Rigid Disk by Non-Flying Single-Pole Head

The feasibility of contact perpendicular magnetic rigid disk recording was investigated using non-flying single-pole heads. Double-layered magnetic films for use in perpendicular recording were fabricated by RF sputtering onto non-textured glass substrates. A novel head supporting and sliding method was introduced to enable contact rigid disk recording. By this method, the head can be floated at an extremely small spacing of 20 to 30 nm over the disk, loaded only by its own weight of less than 1 g. Using a non-flying head slider, not only were high-density recording characteristics obtained, but the heads and disks were observed to be remarkably durable, as much so as heads and media used in contact recording and reproduction with flexible perpendicular magnetic disk media.