Investigation of the structure of recording head fields

Head fields of two recording heads (gap lengths 2.1 and 2.8 micrometer) have been measured with the help of a series of magnetoresistive transducers. The widths of these transducers are 1.9, 4.1 and 7.0 micrometer and they have been positioned in the gap field region very accurately using optical methods. The transducer outputs have been compared with computer simulated results. A systematic deviation between theoretical and experimental results may lead to the assumption that the surface of the recording head is magnetically inactive over a few tenths of a micrometer.