IrMn spin-valves for high density recording

Author

Childress, J.R. ; Carey, M.J. ; Wilson, R.J. ; Smith, N. ; Tsang, C. ; Ho, M.K. ; Carey, K. ; MacDonald, S.A. ; Ingall, L.M. ; Gurney, B.A.

Author_Institution

IBM Almaden Res. Center, San Jose, CA, USA

Volume

37

Issue

4

fYear

2001

fDate

7/1/2001 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1745

Lastpage

1748

Abstract

Simple IrMn spin-valves are investigated for use in high density recording head sensors. Top-IrMn spin-valves of the form NiFeCr(40 Å)/NiFe(32 Å)/CoFe(5)/Cu(25 Å)/CoFe(30 Å)/IrMn(80 Å)/Ta(50 Å) were deposited by magnetron sputtering. By tailoring the pinned layer composition at the CoFe/IrMn interface to Co₆₀Fe₄₀, the exchange bias can be increased above 400 Oe with a GMR amplitude of about 12%. Recording heads were fabricated with total gap thicknesses down to 900 Å, magnetic trackwidth down to 0.2 μm and stripe height down to 0.3 μm. The transfer curve characteristics are found to agree reasonably well with micromagnetic modeling. The model is then used to predict head sensitivity loss from the combination of insufficient exchange bias and short sensor stripe heights

Keywords

exchange interactions (electron); iridium alloys; magnetic heads; manganese alloys; spin valves; sputtered coatings; IrMn spin valve; NiFeCr-NiFe-CoFe-Cu-CoFe-IrMn-Ta; exchange bias; giant magnetoresistance; high-density magnetic recording; magnetic head sensor; magnetron sputtering; micromagnetic model; pinned layer composition; stripe height; transfer curve characteristics; Anisotropic magnetoresistance; Giant magnetoresistance; Iron; Magnetic heads; Magnetic sensors; Magnetic separation; Magnetosphere; Saturation magnetization; Sensor phenomena and characterization; Sputtering;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.950956

Filename

950956