The effect of stripe domains on the displacement curve of an MR head

One of the challenges of using magneto-resistive (MR) read elements in magnetic recording heads is the control of the MR domain structure. It is important to have tools available to recognize and characterize the effects of multiple domains on the output waveform and the across-the-track response. In this paper, it is shown that the effects of multiple domains on the read response characteristics of barber pole biased MR heads can be simulated with a finite element model. The results of the calculations for various domain states in the MR element are compared to recording data. From this comparison, it is concluded that for an MR element positioned in the gap of a single-turn inductive write head, there is a discrete set of stable multiple domain configurations.