Genesis and evolution of lubricant moguls

With today's head-disk spacing approaching the range where Van der Waals interactions become increasingly important, molecular interactions between the lubricant film and the slider surface need to be fully understood. In a previous paper, we reported the formation of "moguls" on waviness peaks and in a recent publication, lubricant ripples at the air bearing frequency have been observed. In this paper, more studies are presented on the genesis and evolution of lubricant "moguls", and emphasis on contributing factors such as lube thickness, lube type and substrate topography will be discussed.