A Ni-Mn spin valve for high density recording

Author

Lin, Tsann ; Mauri, Daniele ; Luo, Yansheng

Author_Institution

Storage Technol. Div., IBM Corp., San Jose, CA, USA

Volume

36

Issue

5

fYear

2000

fDate

9/1/2000 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2563

Lastpage

2565

Abstract

A spin value with a Ni-Mn pinning layer has been annealed in a field parallel and perpendicular to the easy axis of its Co reference layer, and found to exhibit high thermal stability. After a parallel-field anneal for 13.2 h at 280°C, this Ni-Mn spin valve still exhibits a low ferromagnetic coupling field (4.9 Oe) and a high giant magnetoresistance (GMR) coefficient (9.2%). After a perpendicular-field anneal for 13.2 h at 180°C, its Co reference layer is rotated by 19.8°. This Ni-Mn spin valve has been implemented into a head manufacturing process and used as a 10 Gb/in² read sensor in a commercially available notebook computer. Its read performance has been studied from transfer curves, microtrack profiles and readback waveforms. With a sense current of 4 mA, signal sensitivity of 2.38 mV/μm has been attained

Keywords

magnetic annealing; magnetic heads; manganese alloys; nickel alloys; spin valves; thermal stability; 180 C; 280 C; Ni-Mn; Ni-Mn spin valve; easy axis; ferromagnetic coupling field; giant magnetoresistance; head manufacturing process; high density magnetic recording; magnetic field annealing; notebook computer; read sensor; thermal stability; Annealing; Giant magnetoresistance; Magnetic anisotropy; Magnetic heads; Magnetic sensors; Magnetic separation; Manufacturing processes; Spin valves; Temperature sensors; Thermal stability;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.908510

Filename

908510