Quasi-analytical calculation of thermal magnetization fluctuation noise in giant magnetoresistive sensors

Noise caused by thermal magnetization fluctuations in giant magnetoresistive sensors, mainly in the free layer, limits the achievable signal-to-noise ratio and thus the density of magnetic recording systems. Here, we describe a quasi-analytical method to study this noise. First, by discretizing the free layer into sufficiently small rectangular cells, an equilibrium state of the free layer is obtained using a quasi-static energy minimization technique. A linear tensor relation between the magnetization spectra and the thermal fluctuations is found for the two approaches: 1)Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert-Brown and 2) collective spin wave excitation. In the former, damping and thermal fields are added to each cell and then a Fourier transform is taken to obtain the spectra. For the eigenmode approach, the lossless dynamic equations are diagonalized, yielding the system´s intrinsic eigenmodes. Then damping and thermal fluctuations are added to each eigenmode, independently. The sensor playback noise power spectrum density, a measurable quantity, is calculated by summing up the contributions from each eigenmode or cell magnetization. This computationally light treatment yields a clear physical picture of the phenomenon, relating damping, thermal fluctuation, and noise. We describe each step of the calculation procedure in detail and give examples.