Side track erasure of stitched-pole magnetic recording heads

We studied the side track erasure of a stitched-pole head with writer pole P3 not recessed from the air-bearing surface and compared it with conventional designs. A method is presented to determine the degree of side track erasure. We found that side track erasure increases with increasing linear density, medium M_rδ, and DC erase current. This is consistent with the erasure being caused by the stray field generated at the corners of the P2/P3 interface in combination with the demagnetization field present in the transitions. The high degree of magnetization of P3 in the stitched-pole head has been confirmed by magneto-optic Kerr microscopy