  The kinetic friction and wear at high sliding speeds is investigated using
the head-disk interface of hard disk drives, wherein, the head and the disk are
less than 10 nm apart and move at sliding speeds of 5-10 m/s relative to each
other. While the spacing between the sliding surfaces is of the same order of
magnitude as various AFM based fundamental studies on friction, the sliding
speed is nearly six orders of magnitude larger, allowing a unique set-up for a
systematic study of nanoscale wear at high sliding speeds. In a hard disk
drive, the physical contact between the head and the disk leads to friction,
wear and degradation of the head overcoat material (typically diamond like
carbon). In this work, strain gauge based friction measurements are performed;
the friction coefficient as well as the adhering shear strength at the
head-disk interface are extracted; and an experimental set-up for studying
friction between high speed sliding surfaces is exemplified.
