Abstract
The performance of slider of a hard disk drive affects the durability of the system. Particularly, the flying ability of the slider is critical in terms of surface damage and head crash. In this work, the take-off characteristics of the slider for various types of laser zone textured bump geometries were investigated. Also, the effect of ambient pressure on the flying characteristics of the slider was experimentally observed. An index of air density which can be used as a parameter for evaluating the flying characteristic is introduced.