With the rapid development of magnetic storage media in home and
industry, it's very urgent to investigate the tribological behavior of recording
media and improve their tribological properties. In the late 1980's, the invention
of the friction force microscope makes it feasible to evaluate the surface
morphology and microtribological properties at nano scale. The surface morphology,
surface adhesion and microtribological behavior of magnetic audio tapes were
investigated by a new developed atomic force/friction force microscope (AFM/FFM).
The results show that the surface roughness and grain size of three kinds of audio
tapes made in China are almost equal to those of abroad tapes. The friction force
at a given load and friction coefficient of Sony tape are larger than those of
Nature tapes. There is a good correspondence between the friction force image and
the slope of surface topography. The friction force increases with the load, the
slope of surface topography and the surface adhesion.