Slider vibration reduction using slider surface texture

Surface texture with a height of 4.5 nm was fabricated on two types of pico-sliders using argon plasma etching. The nominal flying height of the sliders was 5 and 7 nm, respectively. Laser Doppler vibrometry (LDV) was used to investigate the dynamics of the textured and untextured sliders during steady-state flying and during contact start/stop (CSS). During steady-state flying, the texture was found to significantly reduce both rigid body slider vibration modes and air-bearing modes. During CSS, the amplitude of both out-of-plane and in-plane vibrations was found to be reduced as a consequence of the texture on the slider surfaces.