Data Storage Systems Center

This overview summarizes the work in servo, mechanics, and tribology. The servo work spans design of microactuators for skew compensation, position signal generation on patterned media, and connects to tribology through investigations of friction in actuator pivot bearings. Tribology work includes molecular dynamics simulations of lubricant behavior on disks and characterization of real surfaces for prediction of asperity contacts between slider and disk. Molecular dynamics simulations are also the focus of work on understanding the development of microstructure in thin film media and on the mechanisms and structure of Ge2Sb2Te5 as a phase change material.