JP2003208703A - Magnetic recording head, manufacturing method therefor and carbon protective film forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a magnetic recording head having high corrosion resistance reliability, wherein coverage of a protective film is enhanced and a pinhole is hardly generated even when the protective film has ≤5 nm thin film thickness, to provide a manufacturing method therefor and to provide a carbon protective film forming device. <P>SOLUTION: In the magnetic recording head of a magnetic disk device wherein the surface to be opposed to a medium of a recording and reproducing element 1 to 3 is covered by the protective film 4 consisting of carbon or a laminated layer of carbon and silicon and the surface of the interface between the recording and reproducing element 1 to 3 and the protective layer 4 has ≥2 nm maximum depth Rv, the protective film 4 has ≤5 nm sum total film thickness and the surface of the protective film 4 has ≤0.5 nm center line average surface roughness Ra. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a magnetic recording head, a method of manufacturing the same, and a carbon protective film forming apparatus, and more particularly to a technique for smoothing an air bearing surface of a magnetic recording head used in a magnetic disk device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a technique relating to a magnetic recording head of a magnetic disk device in which an air bearing surface is covered with a protective film of carbon or carbon and silicon, a conventional technique is disclosed in JP-A-4-27636.
No. 7 publication is available. As a specific configuration of the conventional technique, as shown in FIG. 9 which is a sectional structure of a magnetic recording head, the element height after bar cutting is controlled for an element composed of a ceramic substrate 1 ′, an alumina film 2 ′ and a permalloy film 3 ′. The air bearing surface is lapped, and then the air bearing surface is covered with carbon or a protective film in which carbon 4'and silicon 5'are laminated.

As another prior art, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-12
There is a publication 0470. This technique uses a method of polishing a solid surface with a gas cluster ion beam. A gas such as Ar is blown into the vacuum at a high pressure, and the clusters generated by being cooled by the adiabatic expansion action are ionized and further accelerated by the electric field to be incident on the surface of the substrate to be processed.
The gas cluster ions irradiated to the substrate to be processed are broken by the collision with the substrate to be processed, in which case many atoms collide with the atoms or molecules forming the cluster and the atoms or molecules forming the workpiece, and are horizontal to the surface of the substrate to be processed. Movement in the direction becomes remarkable,
As a result, it becomes possible to cut laterally with respect to the surface of the substrate to be processed. Further, the particles move laterally on the surface of the substrate to be processed, so that the convex portions of the surface are mainly shaved and flat ultraprecision polishing in atomic size can be obtained.

[0004]

However, according to the manufacturing method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-276367, the air bearing surface of the element portion of the magnetic recording head has a surface roughness due to lapping, and the average surface roughness is Ra is about 2 nm. When a protective film having a thickness of about 10 nm is formed on the surface having this roughness, a film having a sufficient thickness can be formed even in the concave portion of the surface, and a function as a protective film can be obtained. . However, as the recording density on the magnetic disk medium has increased, the distance between the surface of the magnetic recording element and the medium has to be made closer, and the thickness of the protective film has to be made thinner. Therefore, sufficient coverage for the average surface roughness of the device surface cannot be obtained, and as a result, there are problems that a large number of pinholes are generated in the protective film and recording / reproduction failure due to corrosion occurs. .

Further, when an attempt is made to irradiate the air bearing surface of a magnetic recording head with the gas cluster ion beam disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-120470 to smooth the surface, the invention described in the publication is disclosed. Does not consider composite materials composed of metals or ceramics, such as magnetic recording heads, so metal parts can be abraded much and hard ceramic parts can be abraded due to differences in sputter yield due to physical properties of individual materials. The amount is small, and as a result, the flatness of each material is improved, but it is conceivable that there will be unevenness between the materials. This is
In particular, there is a problem that the magnetic body becomes far from the air bearing surface, the distance to the medium to be recorded or reproduced increases, and the magnetic substance does not function as a recording / reproducing element.

The present invention solves the problems of the prior art, improves the coverage of the protective film, and has a highly corrosion-resistant magnetic recording head with few pinholes even if it is a thin protective film having a thickness of 5 nm or less, and a magnetic recording head thereof. An object is to provide a manufacturing method and a carbon protective film forming apparatus.

[0007]

According to the present invention, the surface (floating surface) of the recording / reproducing element facing the medium is covered with a protective film made of carbon or a stack of carbon and silicon, and the recording / reproducing element is protected. A magnetic recording head having a surface property of an interface with a film having a maximum depth Rv of 2 nm or more, wherein a total film thickness of the protective film is 5
and a center line average surface roughness Ra of the surface of the protective film is 0.5 nm or less.

As a result, even if the surface of the recording / reproducing element has irregularities and the interface has a large Rv, the outermost surface of the protective film is a flat surface with few irregularities, and pinholes are generated in the protective film. It is possible to obtain a highly reliable magnetic recording head that does not operate.

The present invention also provides a magnetic recording head in which the surface of the recording / reproducing element facing the medium is covered with a protective film made of carbon or a stack of carbon and silicon, and the total film thickness of the protective film is Is 5 nm or less, and the pinhole generation density of the protective film is 1 by the pinhole test of immersing in a low-concentration acid solution.
The magnetic recording head has a density of × 10 ⁵ pieces / cm ² or less.

As a result, even if the surface of the recording / reproducing element has irregularities and the interface has a large Rv, it is covered with the protective film that hardly causes pinholes, and thus the magnetic recording head is highly reliable. can do.

According to the present invention, air bearing surface lapping is performed to control the height of the reproducing element after cutting the bar, and then the surface of the recording / reproducing element facing the medium is protected by carbon or a stack of carbon and silicon. A method of manufacturing a magnetic recording head covered with a film, which comprises alternately forming a film of carbon or a laminated film of carbon and silicon and irradiating the film surface with a cluster ion beam of a rare gas. Is a manufacturing method.

When the deposition surface is assisted with a cluster ion beam of a rare gas during film formation and the protective film formation and the gas cluster ion beam are alternately irradiated, the projections on the surface of the recording / reproducing element are scraped and flattened. In addition, the protective film is laminated as it is on the concave portion, resulting in a large Rv and Rp.
Since the shape of the interface is extremely small, the outermost surface of the protective film can form a flat surface with less unevenness due to the flattening effect of the gas cluster ion beam, and it is reliable without generating pinholes in the protective film. The magnetic recording head can have high properties.

Further, according to the present invention, air bearing surface lapping is performed to control the height of the reproducing element after cutting the bar, and then the surface of the recording / reproducing element facing the medium is protected by carbon or a stack of carbon and silicon. A method of manufacturing a magnetic recording head covered with a film, comprising: forming a protective film composed of carbon or a stack of carbon and silicon on an air bearing surface while irradiating a surface of the protective film with a cluster gas of rare gas. It is a method of manufacturing a head.

When the surface of the film to be formed is assisted by irradiation with a cluster ion beam of a rare gas during film formation, and the protective film and the gas cluster ion beam are simultaneously irradiated, the projections on the surface of the recording / reproducing element are scraped and become flat. In addition, the protective film is laminated as it is on the concave portion, resulting in a large Rv and Rp.
Since the shape of the interface is extremely small, the outermost surface of the protective film can form a flat surface with less unevenness due to the flattening effect of the gas cluster ion beam, and it is reliable without generating pinholes in the protective film. The magnetic recording head can have high properties.

Further, according to the present invention, the acceleration voltage of each argon gas cluster ion in the argon gas cluster ion beam is multiplied by the charge valence of the cluster ion, and further divided by the number of atoms constituting each argon cluster ion. By setting the value, that is, the kinetic energy given to each atom forming the cluster at the time of accelerating the cluster ions to 100 eV or less, irradiation damage is given only to the very surface of the protective film which is the workpiece, and the inside of the film and the underlying layer Since a defect does not occur in a certain magnetic recording head element portion, a highly reliable magnetic recording head can be manufactured.

Furthermore, the present invention is a method for manufacturing a magnetic recording head, wherein a cathodic arc method by arc discharge to a carbon target is used as a carbon film forming method, and the process pressure is 10 ⁻³ Pa or less. .

By using the cathodic arc method as a protective film forming method, it becomes possible to form a film under high vacuum,
Since the irradiation of the gas cluster ion beam can be performed at the same time as the formation of the protective film, the processing efficiency is significantly improved compared to the alternate repeated processing of film formation and cluster ion irradiation, and the coverage is high and the pinholes are highly reliable. The magnetic recording head can be manufactured with high throughput.

The present invention is also an apparatus for forming a carbon protective film made of carbon or a stack of carbon and silicon on a surface of a recording / reproducing element facing a medium, the method being a cathodic arc by arc discharge to a carbon target. A carbon protective film forming apparatus comprising a carbon film forming part by a method and a carbon film irradiating part by a cluster ion beam method.

As a result, the protective film formation and the cluster ion beam irradiation can be performed alternately or simultaneously, the processing efficiency is improved, and the magnetic recording head having good coverage and few pinholes and high reliability can be manufactured. .

Further, according to the present invention, after cutting the bar, air bearing surface lapping is performed to control the height of the reproducing element, and then the surface of the recording / reproducing element facing the medium is protected by carbon or a stack of carbon and silicon. In a process of manufacturing a magnetic recording head covered with a film, forming a film of carbon or a laminated film of carbon and silicon, and irradiating an argon ion beam incident on the surface of the film at a shallow angle within 20 degrees. Is a method of manufacturing a magnetic recording head, in which

Simultaneously or alternately irradiating the argon ion beam at a shallow angle during the formation of the protective film, the convex portion of the recording / reproducing element is ground and flattened, and the concave portion is laminated with the protective film as a result. Since the interface has a large Rv and a small Rp, the outermost surface of the protective film can form a flat surface with less unevenness, and highly reliable magnetic recording that does not generate pinholes in the protective film. It can be a head.

Further, in the present invention, the kinetic energy of each argon ion incident on the film surface is set to 100 eV or less in the normal direction to the incident film surface, so that only the very surface of the protective film which is the workpiece is processed. It is possible to manufacture a highly reliable magnetic recording head because it does not cause irradiation damage and does not cause defects in the magnetic recording head element portion which is the inside of the film and the underlayer.

[0023]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described.
The outline and examples of the magnetic recording head, the manufacturing method thereof, and the manufacturing apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a cross-sectional structure of an element portion of the magnetic recording head of the first embodiment. FIG. 2 is an explanatory view of the cross-sectional structure of the element portion of the magnetic recording head of Example 1 after the air bearing surface polishing step. FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of the cross-sectional structure of the element portion of the magnetic recording head of Example 1 after the first protective film is formed. FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of the cross-sectional structure of the element portion of the magnetic recording head of Example 1 after the first gas cluster ion beam irradiation. FIG. 5 is an explanatory view of the cross-sectional structure of the element portion of the magnetic recording head of the example after the second protective film formation. FIG. 6 is an explanatory view of the cross-sectional structure of the element portion of the magnetic recording head of the example after the second gas cluster ion beam irradiation. FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of an example of the protective film forming apparatus of the embodiment. FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of the relationship between surface roughness and pinhole density in the magnetic recording head of the example.

The outline of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. In the magnetic recording head of the present invention, the surface of the recording / reproducing element facing the medium is covered with a protective film made of carbon or a stack of carbon and silicon, and the surface property of the interface between the recording / reproducing element and the protective film is maximum. The depth Rv is 2 nm or more, the total film thickness of the protective film is 5 nm or less, and the center line average surface roughness Ra of the surface of the protective film is 0.5 nm or less. Further, the density of pinholes generated in the protective film is 1 × 10 ⁵ pieces / cm ² or less by the pinhole test of immersing in a low-concentration acid solution.
As shown in FIG. 1 which is a cross-sectional view of the magnetic recording head, a permalloy 3 is formed on a ceramic substrate 1 by being sandwiched by an alumina film 2. The permalloy 3 is cut and polished to form an air bearing surface. The air bearing surface after polishing has a roughness of a total film thickness Rmax of 8 to 15 nm due to scratches caused by polishing.
In particular, scratches concentrate on the soft permalloy film 3. When the protective film is formed and the gas cluster ion beam is alternately irradiated, the convex portion on the surface of the recording / reproducing element is scraped and becomes flat. Since the protective film 4 is laminated as it is on the concave portion, as a result, the maximum depth Rv is large, but the maximum height Rp is very small. The maximum height Rp can be 1 nm or less. The outermost surface of the protective film 4 can be formed into a flat surface with less unevenness due to the flattening effect of the gas cluster ion beam, and a highly reliable magnetic recording head that does not generate pinholes in the protective film 4 can be provided. Can be made.

The magnetic recording head, the method for manufacturing the same, and the carbon protective film forming apparatus of the present invention will be specifically described with reference to examples. As shown in the sectional view of the magnetic recording head of this embodiment, a permalloy 3 is formed on a ceramic substrate 1 by being sandwiched between alumina films 2 and cut and polished to form an air bearing surface. The air bearing surface after polishing has a roughness of Rmax of 8 to 15 nm due to scratches caused by polishing. In particular, scratches concentrate on the soft permalloy film 3. When the formation of the carbon protective film and the irradiation of the gas cluster ion beam are alternately performed, the convex portion on the surface of the recording / reproducing element is scraped and becomes flat. Since the carbon protective film 4 is laminated as it is on the concave portion, as a result, the interface shape has a large maximum depth Rv and a very small maximum height Rp. The outermost surface of the carbon protective film 4 can form a flat surface with less unevenness due to the flattening effect of the gas cluster ion beam, and a highly reliable magnetic recording head that does not generate pinholes in the carbon protective film 4. Can be made.

A carbon protective film forming apparatus is shown in FIG. This device is equipped with a carbon film forming part by a cathodic arc method by arc discharge to a carbon target and a carbon film irradiating part by a cluster ion beam method, and a gas introduction part 11, a cluster generation chamber 12, a supersonic nozzle. 13, a schema 14, an ionization acceleration electrode 15, a TMP 16, a mass filter 17, and a carbon ion source 18. The substrate 21 to be processed placed on the vacuum chamber can be irradiated with the gas cluster ion beam 31 and the carbon plasma 32 simultaneously or alternately. The carbon plasma 32 is formed by the arc discharge to the carbon target by the carbon ion source 18. Also, gas cluster ion beam 31
The Ar gas supplied from the Ar gas introduction unit 11 at a high pressure of 2 × 10 ⁵ to 10 ⁶ Pa is 1 Pa from the supersonic nozzle 13.
It is ejected to the following cluster generation chamber 12. Ar gas is cooled to a temperature below the boiling point by adiabatic expansion and aggregates to form several tens to several tens.
An Ar cluster beam consisting of 00 atoms is formed. The Ar cluster is guided to the ionization accelerating electrode 15 through the beam directivity and the schema 14 which also serves as an orifice. Here, the clusters are ionized by electron irradiation and further accelerated in the range of 1 to 20 kV. The accelerated cluster ion beam passes through the mass filter 17 constituted by the orthogonal magnetic field to eliminate small clusters and monomers having a molecular weight of 4000 or less, and irradiate only larger clusters on the substrate.

A protective film forming process in the magnetic recording head of the embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 2 shows a state immediately after polishing the air bearing surface of the recording / reproducing element. The air bearing surface after polishing had a roughness of Rmax of 10 nm due to scratches caused by polishing. In particular, scratches concentrate on the soft permalloy film 3.

FIG. 3 shows a state in which the protective film 4a is formed on the air bearing surface to a thickness of 10 nm. When the protective film 4a is formed on this surface, the convex portion of the scratch directly projects from the air bearing surface and, in the worst case, comes into contact with the recording medium and causes a failure. In addition, the scratch recess has a poor adhesion around the protective film 4a, and pinholes are easily generated, which causes a failure due to corrosion.

FIG. 4 shows a state after the surface of the formed protective film 4a is irradiated with the gas cluster ion beam. The irradiation condition of the gas cluster ion beam is Ar as a gas.
The average cluster size is 560 and the average molecular weight is 22,400. The acceleration voltage was 5 kv, and the irradiation amount was 5 × 10 ¹⁵ dose / cm ² . Under this condition, the protective film 4 having a thickness of 10 nm is etched to 2 nm. Etching by gas cluster ion beam
Due to the collision of huge clusters, the constituent molecules collapse in the direction along the surface, which has the property of increasing the etching rate especially for the convex portions. Therefore, the protective film deposited on the scratches is selectively etched, so that the underlying material is exposed at the large protrusions. The surface roughness in this state is Rmax 4 nm, center line average surface roughness R
The maximum height Rp was 1 nm and the maximum depth Pv was 3 nm at a 0.4 nm.

FIG. 5 shows a state in which a carbon film 4b having a thickness of 10 nm is formed on the state shown in FIG. The state of FIG. 5 after the surface is irradiated with the gas cluster ion beam is shown in FIG.
Shown in. As for the irradiation conditions of the gas cluster ion beam, Ar is used as the gas, the average cluster size is 560, and the average molecular weight is 22,400, as in the case of FIG. The acceleration voltage is 5 kv, and the irradiation dose is 5 × 10 ¹⁵ dose / c
It was m ² . Under this condition, the carbon film 4 having a thickness of 10 nm
b is etched to 2 nm. At this point, the total thickness of the protective film is 4 nm. The roughness of the protective film surface is Rma.
The average surface roughness Ra was 0.3 nm.

FIG. 8 shows the results of measuring the pinhole generation density of the protective film against the surface roughness of the protective film by changing the irradiation amount of the gas cluster ion beam. The protective film thickness is 4 nm. The pinhole was measured by immersing the element having the protective film formed therein in a hydrochloric acid solution diluted to 10% for 30 minutes, and counting the number of pitting corrosion generated on the surface of Permalloy by observing with an optical microscope. As a result, it was found that the pinhole density increased logarithmically as the Rmax value increased. The surface roughness needs to be Rmax 5 nm or less in order to reduce the number to 10 ⁵ pieces / cm ² or less, which is sufficiently smaller than the element area, and the planarization method according to the present embodiment can reduce pinholes to a practical level. It turns out that

As described in the above embodiments, the present invention is
The surface of the magnetic recording element to be flattened is not directly irradiated with the gas cluster ion beam, but the surface of the protective film is planarized by simultaneously or alternately irradiating the gas cluster ion beam during film formation of the protective film. . When the surface of a magnetic recording element is directly irradiated with a gas cluster ion beam and an attempt is made to smooth the surface, the element part of the magnetic recording head, which is a composite of a magnetic metal and a ceramic, is exposed to gas cluster ions for each material. The etching rate is different, and many soft magnetic materials are scraped off, leaving hard ceramic parts. Smoothing is possible within the same material, but since each material becomes uneven, the magnetic material becomes far from the air bearing surface, so the distance to the medium to be recorded or reproduced increases and it functions as a recording / reproducing element. Will not do. Therefore, in the present invention, the protective film is once formed to make the surface the same material, and the surface is planarized by irradiating the surface with a gas cluster ion beam. However, if the gas cluster ion beam irradiation is performed only once after the film formation, the convex portion of the base comes close to the surface when the protective film is shaved to a predetermined thickness, and in some cases it is exposed to form a pinhole in the protective film. Therefore, the irradiation of the gas cluster ion beam is continued until the remaining protective film becomes 1 to 2 nm, and then the protective film is formed again to a predetermined film thickness. Alternatively, a thicker film is formed and the gas cluster ion beam is irradiated again to reduce the film thickness to a predetermined value. The more the film formation and the gas cluster ion beam irradiation are repeated, the more the surface flatness is improved. In this way, it is possible to improve the coverage of the protective film and to produce a magnetic recording head having high corrosion resistance and high reliability, with few pinholes even with a thin protective film of 5 nm or less.

The second embodiment of the present invention will be described below. In this embodiment, a monomer argon ion beam is used instead of the irradiation of an argon gas crystallite ion beam as a planarization method in contrast to the first embodiment described above. The magnetic recording head to be processed had the same structure as that of the first embodiment and was processed by the same polishing process. Therefore, the air bearing surface after polishing has a roughness of Rmax of 8 nm to 15 nm due to scratches caused by polishing. A protective film having a thickness of 10 nm was formed on this surface, and then an argon ion beam was irradiated. The irradiation condition of the argon gas ion beam used in the experiment was that the acceleration voltage of the argon ion was 3
00V, and the incident angle to the substrate is 15 with respect to the substrate surface.
Set in degrees. The ion current density at the plane of vertical incidence was 1.1 A / m ² . Irradiation was performed for 1 minute under these conditions to etch the protective film by 8 nm. Etching by obliquely incident ions has the property of increasing the etching rate especially for the convex portions. Therefore, the convex portion is etched and removed, and the protective film remains deposited on the concave portion. Thereafter, a protective film having a thickness of 10 nm is further formed, and then an argon ion beam is irradiated for 1 minute under the same conditions. At this point, the total film thickness of the protective film is 4 nm. At this time, the surface roughness of the protective film was Rmax 3.5 nm and the average surface roughness Ra was 0.4 nm. In this way, not only the gas cluster ion beam but also the monomer ion beam is irradiated at a low incident angle, and the same planarization effect can be obtained, and the coverage of the protective film is improved. A magnetic recording head with few pinholes and high corrosion resistance can be produced.

In the embodiment, the carbon film is formed as the protective film, but it is also possible to form a laminated film of carbon and silicon, and the same effect can be obtained.

[0035]

According to the present invention, the magnetic recording head with improved corrosion resistance and reliability, which improves the coverage of the protective film and has few pinholes even if it is a thin protective film having a thickness of 5 nm or less, a manufacturing method thereof, and a carbon protective film forming apparatus. Can be obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view of a cross-sectional structure of an element portion of a magnetic recording head of Example 1.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view of the cross-sectional structure of the element portion of the magnetic recording head of Example 1 after the air bearing surface polishing step.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of a cross-sectional structure of an element portion of the magnetic recording head of Example 1 after the first protective film is formed.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of the cross-sectional structure of the element portion of the magnetic recording head of Example 1 after the first gas cluster ion beam irradiation.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view of the cross-sectional structure of the element portion of the magnetic recording head of the embodiment after the second protective film formation.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view of the cross-sectional structure of the element portion of the magnetic recording head of the embodiment after the second irradiation with the gas cluster ion beam.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a protective film forming apparatus according to an embodiment.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of a relationship between surface roughness and pinhole density in the magnetic recording head of the example.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory view of a sectional structure of an element portion of a magnetic recording head based on a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Ceramic substrate 2 Alumina film 3 Permalloy film 4, 4a, 4b carbon film 5 Silicon film 11 Gas introduction section 12 Cluster generation room 13 Supersonic nozzle 14 Schema 15 Ionization acceleration electrode 16 TMP 17 Mass filter 18 Carbon ion source 21 substrate to be processed 31 gas cluster ion beam 32 carbon plasma

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Kenji Furusawa             292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa             Inside the Hitachi, Ltd. production technology laboratory F-term (reference) 5D111 AA13 AA24 FF07 FF15 FF23                       GG12 JJ03 KK20

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A surface of a recording / reproducing element facing a medium is covered with a protective film composed of carbon or a stack of carbon and silicon, and a surface texture of an interface between the recording / reproducing element and the protective film has a maximum depth Rv2 nm. The magnetic recording head as described above, wherein the total film thickness of the protective film is 5 nm or less, and the center line average surface roughness Ra of the surface of the protective film is 0.5 nm or less. Recording head. 2. A magnetic recording head in which a surface of a recording / reproducing element facing a medium is covered with a protective film made of carbon or a stack of carbon and silicon, and the total film thickness of the protective film is 5 nm or less. Yes, and the density of pinholes generated in the protective film is 1 × 10 ⁵ pieces / cm ² or less by the pinhole test of immersing in a low-concentration acid solution. A magnetic recording head characterized by. 3. After the bar is cut, air bearing surface lapping is performed to control the height of the reproducing element, and then the surface of the recording / reproducing element facing the medium is covered with a protective film made of carbon or a stack of carbon and silicon. A method of manufacturing a recording head, comprising: forming a film of carbon or a laminated film of carbon and silicon; and irradiating the film surface with a cluster ion beam of a rare gas alternately. Head manufacturing method. 4. A magnetic layer which is formed by lapping air bearing surfaces for controlling the height of the reproducing element after cutting the bar and then covering the surface of the recording / reproducing element facing the medium with a protective film made of carbon or a stack of carbon and silicon. A method of manufacturing a recording head, comprising forming a protective film made of carbon or a stack of carbon and silicon on an air bearing surface while irradiating a surface of the protective film with a cluster ion beam of a rare gas. Recording head manufacturing method. 5. The method of manufacturing a magnetic recording head according to claim 3, wherein the accelerating voltage of each argon gas cluster ion is multiplied by the charge valence of the cluster ion to further form each argon cluster ion. A method of manufacturing a magnetic recording head, characterized in that the value divided by the number of atoms, that is, the kinetic energy applied to each atom constituting the cluster is 100 eV or less. 6. The method of manufacturing a magnetic recording head according to claim 3 or 4, wherein a cathodic arc method by arc discharge to a carbon target is used as a carbon film forming method, in which a process pressure is 10 ^−3. A method of manufacturing a magnetic recording head, characterized in that it is Pa or less. 7. A device for forming a carbon protective film composed of carbon or a stack of carbon and silicon on a surface of a recording / reproducing element facing a medium, the carbon film being formed by a cathodic arc method by arc discharge to a carbon target. An apparatus for forming a carbon protective film, comprising: a forming unit; and a carbon film irradiating unit using a cluster ion beam method. 8. After cutting the bar, magnetic wrapping is performed to control the height of the reproducing element, and then the surface of the recording / reproducing element facing the medium is covered with a protective film made of carbon or a stack of carbon and silicon. A method of manufacturing a recording head, comprising forming a film of carbon or a laminated film of carbon and silicon and irradiating an argon ion beam incident on the surface of the film at a shallow angle within 20 degrees. A method of manufacturing a magnetic recording head, comprising: 9. After cutting the bar, magnetic wrapping for controlling the height of the reproducing element is performed, and then the surface of the recording / reproducing element facing the medium is covered with a protective film made of carbon or a stack of carbon and silicon. A method of manufacturing a recording head, comprising forming a film of carbon or a laminated film of carbon and silicon and irradiating an argon ion beam incident on the surface of the film at a shallow angle within 20 degrees. And a method for manufacturing a magnetic recording head. 10. The method of manufacturing a magnetic recording head according to claim 8 or 9, wherein the kinetic energy of each argon ion incident on the film surface has a component in the direction normal to the incident film surface of 1.
A method of manufacturing a magnetic recording head, wherein the magnetic recording head is not more than 00 eV.