Lubricant transfer caused by breakage of liquid meniscus bridge

In recent magnetic storage systems, the spacing between the flying head and the disk has been decreased remarkably to less than 5?nm in order to realize ultra-high density recording. Lubricant on the disk is picked up by the flying head slider as a result of intermittent contact between the slider and the disk, or due to condensation of the lubricant vapor. In the present study, the basic characteristics of lubricant transfer (lubricant pick-up) caused by the breakage of a liquid meniscus bridge are investigated experimentally and theoretically. An experimental method by which to measure the volume fraction of the lubricant pick-up has been established. The theoretical results obtained from a simple model proposed by the authors showed good agreement with the experimental results. The validity of the theoretical model was verified based on the experimental results.