Modelling the effects of boundary pinning in magnetoresistive elements

The authors discuss the inclusion of boundary pinning within an established micromagnetic model (Tomlinson and Hill, 1990). An example of boundary pinning for a magnetoresistive element (MRE) suitable for magnetometry applications is presented, followed by an illustration of the quantitative analysis of information storage transducer biasing. The modeling of techniques in which regions of the MR strip are forced to lie in a direction which is favorable for an overall improvement in performance are described. Results presented show that the calculated sensitivity of a magnetometer can be increased whilst at the same time reducing the bias field requirement. Results are also presented for information storage readout transducers for which domain stability must be addressed