Self-assembled monolayers of 1H,1H,2H,2H-per fluorodecyltrichloro-silane (FDTS) have been deposited on the diamond-like carbon (DLC) film-coated magnetic heads with two different solvents, n-hexane and Vertrel XF. In order to investigate the solvent effect on the monolayer formation, a series of FDTS monolayers were prepared by varying the solution concentrations which were respectively characterized by time-of-flight mass spectroscopy, contact angle measurements and atomic force microscopy. Results showed that high density of aggregations were present for the FDTS monolayers using the n-hexane solvent, while the monolayer formed on the DLC surface using the Vertrel XF solvent exhibited excellent quality and reproducibility and no aggregations were observed. (c) 2008 Published by Elsevier B.V.