Delamination of Ultra-Thin Diamond-Like Carbon Coatings on Magnetic Recording Heads Under Normal Loading

Delamination between an ultra-thin amorphous carbon overcoat, a silicon adhesion layer, and permalloy substrate material of a hard drive recording head is studied during normal loading/unloading of the head disk interface. The effect of normal load and thickness of the silicon adhesion layer on delamination of the Si-permalloy and amorphous carbon-Si interfaces is quantified using a molecular dynamics model. No permanent delamination is found for contact pressures up to 100 MPa, except for the case where a silicon adhesion layer is absent.