Ultra-Thin Silicon Carbon Nitride Film: a Promising Protective Coating for Read/Write Heads in Magnetic Storage Devices

Ultra-thin amorphous Si-C-N films, down to 2nm, have been synthesized by MW-ECR plasma enhanced unbalanced magnetron sputtering. The friction coefficient of the film is only 0.11, determined in dry friction tests against the GCr15 ball at a load of 400mN for 20min. The films exhibit good protection against corrosion when they are immersed in a more severe corrosion environment of 0.1mol/L oxalic acid for 12h compared to the usual conditions (0.05mol/L, 4min) used in current computer industries. These good properties can be attributed to the smooth, dense and pore free structure of the film. These indicate that the Si-C-N film synthesized by the present technique may be a promising protective coating for read/write heads and other magnetic storage devices.