R&D: Study on Thermal Decomposition of D-4OH PFPE Lubricant by Reactive Molecular Dynamic Simulation for HAMR

IEEE Transactions on Magnetics has published an article written by Qingkang Liu, Kaihao Huang, Xiaohong Zhu, and Gang Wang, School of Energy and Mechanical Engineering, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Nanchang, China.

Abstract: “Heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) is one of the ways of ultra-high density storage technology. The pulsed laser in HAMR head heats the nano-region of disk to Curie temperature. The laser heating causes the decomposition of PFPE lubricant, which indirectly leads to failure of head-disk interface. The reactive molecular dynamics simulations are performed to research the thermal decomposition of single and multiple D-4OH lubricants. The effect of three different heating rates on the thermal decomposition process of single D-4OH lubricant are investigated. The decomposition processes of single and multi-D-4OH molecular chains are the same: the functional end groups degrade first and then the main chain. These results are useful for the optimization of PFPE lubricants for HAMR disks.“