Magnetic-recording medium including a carbon overcoat implanted with nitrogen and hydrogen
View Patent ↗A magnetic-recording medium includes a hydrogen and nitrogen implanted carbon overcoat (HNICOC) on a magnetic-recording layer. The HNICOC includes nitrogen implanted in a top-surface layer of the HNICOC such that a percentage ratio of a concentration of the implanted nitrogen to a concentration of carbon is between about 30 percent (%) to about 10% within a depth from about 2 Ångstrom (Å) to about 5 Å from the top surface of the HNICOC. An amount of hydrogen implanted in the top-surface layer is between about 1% to about 12% within a distance less than about 5 Å from the top surface. A data storage device that incorporates the magnetic-recording medium within a magnetic-recording disk, and a method for making the magnetic-recording medium are also described.
1. A magnetic-recording medium comprising:
a substrate;
a magnetic-recording layer disposed on the substrate; and
a hydrogen and nitrogen implanted carbon overcoat (HNICOC) disposed on the magnetic-recording layer;
wherein the HNICOC consists of a single layer;
wherein the HNICOC comprises nitrogen implanted in a top-surface area of the HNICOC such that a percentage ratio of a concentration of the implanted nitrogen to a concentration of carbon in the top-surface area of the HNICOC is between about 30 percent (%) to about 10% within a depth from about 2 Ångstrom (Å) to about 5 Å from the top surface of the HNICOC;
wherein the HNICOC comprises an amount of hydrogen implanted in the top-surface area between about 1 atomic % to 12 atomic % within a distance less than about 5 Å from the top-surface of the HNICOC; and
wherein the HNICOC comprises an unimplanted COC area below the top-surface area.
2. The magnetic-recording medium of claim 1 , wherein the HNICOC comprises nitrogen implanted in the top-surface area of the HNICOC such that the percentage ratio of the concentration of the implanted nitrogen to the concentration of carbon in the top-surface area of the HNICOC varies from about 30% to about 10% within a depth from about 2 Å to about 5 Å, respectively from the top surface.
3. The magnetic-recording medium of claim 1 , wherein the percentage ratio of the concentration of the implanted nitrogen to the concentration of the carbon is not greater than about 10% at a depth of about 10 Å from the top surface.
4. The magnetic-recording medium of claim 1 , wherein the HNICOC comprises an amount of hydrogen implanted in the top-surface area of the HNICOC that is sufficient to inactivate a first fraction of active sites created by the implanted nitrogen.
5. The magnetic-recording medium of claim 1 , wherein the HNICOC comprises an amount of hydrogen implanted in the top-surface area of the HNICOC that is sufficient to inhibit contamination from contaminants in a magnetic recording environment.
6. The magnetic-recording medium of claim 5 , wherein the contaminants are environmental organic contaminants (EOCs).
7. The magnetic-recording medium of claim 5 , wherein the contaminants comprise compounds selected from the group consisting of silanes, silanols, siloxanes, organasilanes, organaosiloxanes, heterosilanes, hetereosiloxanes, organaosilicon compounds and other silicon-containing compounds.
8. The magnetic-recording medium of claim 1 , wherein at least the unimplanted COC area comprises a diamond-like carbon (DLC) overcoat.
9. The magnetic-recording medium of claim 1 , wherein the HNICOC comprises an effective amount of nitrogen implanted within the top-surface area of the HNICOC extending from the top surface to a depth from about 2 Å to about 5 Å sufficient to bond a layer of lubricant to the HNICOC.
10. The magnetic-recording medium of claim 1 , wherein the amount of hydrogen implanted in the top-surface area of the HNICOC inactivates a second fraction of dangling bonds in the top-surface area of the HNICOC created by implantation of the nitrogen.
11. A magnetic-recording disk including the magnetic-recording medium of claim 1 .
12. A data storage device, comprising:
a magnetic-recording disk including the magnetic-recording medium of claim 1 ;
a slider operable to fly over the magnetic-recording disk; and
a magnetic-recording head disposed on the slider, wherein the magnetic-recording head includes:
a write element operable to write information to the magnetic-recording disk; and
a read element operable to read information from the magnetic-recording disk.
13. The magnetic-recording medium of claim 12 , wherein the data storage device comprises a hard-disk drive (HDD).
14. The magnetic-recording medium of claim 1 , wherein the unimplanted COC area is directly below the top-surface area.