Spin valve and dual spin valve heads with synthetic antiferromagnets

Author

Zhu, Jian-Gang

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Volume

35

Issue

2

fYear

1999

fDate

3/1/1999 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

655

Lastpage

660

Abstract

Analytical and micromagnetic analysis have been performed for synthetic antiferromagnet (SAF) biased single and dual spin valve heads. It is found that for a un-pinned SAF under an external field, the antiparallel axis will flop to the direction orthogonal to the field direction. Introducing a thickness differential in the SAF can help to prevent the magnetization flop in addition to the exchange pinning. Design principles for SAF biased single and dual spin valve heads are presented. An SAF biased dual spin valve head with appropriate design can have significant advantages over the single spin valve besides higher GMR values

Keywords

antiferromagnetism; exchange interactions (electron); giant magnetoresistance; magnetic heads; magnetisation; spin valves; GMR values; antiparallel axis; dual spin valve heads; exchange pinning; magnetization flop; micromagnetic analysis; spin valve heads; synthetic antiferromagnets; thickness differential; un-pinned SAF; Antiferromagnetic materials; Decision support systems; Magnetic analysis; Magnetic heads; Magnetic separation; Magnetization; Magnetostatics; Micromagnetics; Performance analysis; Spin valves;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.750623

Filename

750623