A two-dimensional magnetic recording (TDMR) disk drive has a gas-bearing slider that includes first and second sensors with a first cross-track spacing electrically coupled to a first magnetic shield, and third and fourth sensors with a different cross-track spacing electrically coupled to a second magnetic shield. The different spacings results in the first and third sensors and the second and fourth sensors having a cross-track spacing to accommodate for the effect of head skew. Each sensor is connected to an associated amplifier by a suspension trace and a common trace connected to its associated shield. Switching circuitry selects either the first and third amplifiers or the second and fourth amplifiers as the active pair depending on the radial location where the data is to be read. Thus the appropriate pair of sensors are aligned with the data tracks despite the presence of high head skew.

Disclosed herein are methods of forming one or more transducer elements in a transducer region of a slider by electrodepositing one or more metal ions from an ionic liquid solvent, and related sliders.

Various illustrative aspects are directed to a data storage device comprising one or more disks; an actuator arm assembly comprising one or more actuator arms, and configured to position the one or more actuator arms over disk surfaces of the one or more disks; one or more fine actuators, disposed on the one or more actuator arms; and one or more processing devices. The one or more processing devices are configured to: output a driver current to the one or more fine actuators, wherein the one or more processing devices are configured to rate limit a rise of the driver current over time during an activation of the driver current to within a selected rate limit of current rise over time.

A slider design for a hard disk drive (HDD) features an air-bearing surface (ABS) topography with arrays of micro-dots formed on bases of a multiplicity of cavities at different depths. The design eliminates the accumulation of hydrocarbons (e.g., spindle oil and disk lubricant) deposits in regions of air stagnation within the cavities where backflows and foreflows of air meet and cancel during HDD operation. The micro-dots are small raised regions of various shapes having sizes and spacings in the range between 2 and 100 microns and, in a preferred embodiment, heights of 0.15 microns above the cavity bases.

First and second nominal head-to-media spacings of a magnetic recording head are determined that result in tracks being written to a magnetic recording medium at respective narrower and wider tracks widths. Three or more adjacent tracks of user data are written to the magnetic recording medium using one of the first and second nominal head-to-media spacings so that the adjacent tracks alternate between the narrower and wider track widths.

Devices having an air bearing surfaces (ABS), the devices including a near field transducer (NFT) that includes a disc having a front edge; a peg, the peg having a front surface at the air bearing surface of the apparatus, an opposing back surface, a top surface that extends from the front surface to the back surface, two side surfaces that expend from the front surface to the back surface and a bottom surface that extends from the front surface to the back surface; and a barrier layer, the barrier layer separating at least the back surface of the peg from the disc and the barrier layer having a thickness from 10 nm to 50 nm.

According to one embodiment, a magnetic disk device includes a rotatable disk-shaped recording medium, a magnetic head including a write head having a main magnetic pole that applies a recording magnetic field to the recording medium, an assist element that assists magnetic recording by the main magnetic pole, and a plurality of thermal actuators that control a head gradient with respect to the recording medium, and a controller which includes a detection unit configured to detect deterioration of the magnetic head, and changes a head gradient of the magnetic head by the thermal actuator according to the detected deterioration.

A thermally-assisted magnetic recording head includes a main pole and a plasmon generator. The main pole has a front end face located in the medium facing surface. The plasmon generator has a near-field light generating surface located in the medium facing surface. The front end face of the main pole includes a first end face portion and a second end face portion. The second end face portion is located farther from the near-field light generating surface than is the first end face portion, and is greater than the first end face portion in width in the track width direction. The first end face portion and the near-field light generating surface are equal in width.

This thin film magnetic head includes a magnetic pole including an end surface exposed on an air bearing surface, and a contact detection section including a magnetic material layer provided near the air bearing surface, and a magnetic-domain stabilizing structure stabilizing a magnetic domain structure of the magnetic material layer.

A data storage device is disclosed comprising at least one head configured to access a magnetic tape comprising a plurality of servo frames each comprising a plurality of servo bursts. A first servo burst is read using the head to generate a read signal which is sampled to generate signal samples. A first matched filter matched to the first servo burst is used to generate filtered samples in response to the signal samples, and at least part of the filtered samples are interpolated to generate interpolated samples. The interpolated samples are processed to generate a position error signal (PES), and a position of the head relative to the magnetic tape is controlled based on the PES.