Abstract Particulate contamination studies were carried out with laser-textured and mechanically textured magnetic rigid disks and nanosliders. The effects of particle concentration and its size, particle material, duration of exposure to contamination, interface speed and disk textures were studied. The head-disk interface (HDI) durability increased as particle concentration decreased. The effect of different hard-particle materials was attributed to how easily it can form agglomerates. Data indicate that limited-time exposure to a class 10 000 environment will not deter tribological performance of the HDI. In a contaminated environment, head flying in the data zone exhibited higher durability than that in the-lase textured zone. However, the mechanically textured disk and the data zone of laser-textured disks showed comparable durability in the presence of contamination. The HDI damage mechanism and pattern changed as the disk speed changed. A failure mechanism to show how the airborne particles interact with the interface is presented. The effects of the HDI geometry, flying height, pitch angle which controls the air flow pattern govern the failure mechanism in the flying mode.
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