Characterization of lubricant films on magnetic recording disks by ToF-SIMS

The structural characterization of Z-DOL (Fomblin Z), which is currently the lubricant of choice for magnetic recording disks, as films of variable thickness on carbon-overcoated disks has been studied by time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS). The relationship between the peak intensity of dominant fragment ions and the lubricant thickness was carefully examined on the positive mass spectra, The ratio of CF3+/C2F5+ in intensity can be used as an index of the lubricant thickness. The monomer ratio between ethylene and methylene units of the Fomblin backbone can be extracted from the plot of normalized intensity of C2F4O+ against the CF3+/C2F5+ ratio. The chemical bondability of the lubricant to the carbon overcoat surface can be examined through the plot of normalized intensity of CF2CH2OH+ against the CF3+/C2F5+ ratio. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.