Western Digital Technologies, Inc.

Hgst Netherlands, B.v.

Alexander Goncharov

Muhammad Asif Bashir

Petrus Antonius Van Der Heijden

Yunfei Ding

James Terrence Olson

Zhigang Bai

James Mac Freitag

Masato Shiimoto

Zheng Gao

Susumu Okamura

Suping Song

Hiroyuki Hoshiya

Mikito Sugiyama

Daniele Mauri

Kuok San Ho

Aron Pentek

Venkatesh Chembrolu

Goran Mihajlovic

Gonçalo Marcos Baião De Albuquerque

Robert G Biskeborn

Quang Le

David John Seagle

Barry C Stipe

Yingjian Chen

Yongchul Ahn

Yuankai Zheng

Edward Hin Pong Lee

Zhanjie Li

Christian Kaiser

Zhitao Diao

Yaguang Wei

Terence T Lam

Hamid Balamane

Amanda Baer

Matteo Staffaroni

Takuya Matsumoto

Vijay P S Rawat

Petrus Antonius VanDerHeijden

Petrus Antonius Vanderheijden

Yi Zhang

Shengjie Shi

Petrus Antonius Van Der Hemden

The present disclosure generally relates to a magnetic recording head for magnetic media, such as a magnetic media drive. The head has a main pole, trailing shield, leading shield, first side shield, and second side shield. One side shield is electrically connected to the trailing shield and electrically disconnected from the leading shield. The other side shield is electrically connected to the leading shield and electrically disconnected from the trailing shield. The side shields are electrically connected through a hot seed layer and/or a nonmagnetic electrically conductive layer that is electrically disconnected from the main pole. Such an arrangement results in a current path from the trailing shield, through the side shields, around the main pole, and to the leading shield, which results in reduced resistance.

Magnetic recording head with current path between trailing shield and leading shield for improved resistance

The present disclosure generally relates to a magnetic recording system comprising a magnetic recording head that provides a low resistance cross-track current path at the trailing side of the main pole. A bias current may be driven through the path to enhance the magnetic write field to the magnetic recording media. The current is driven by an alternating current (AC) source external to the head. In some embodiments, the cross-track current going through the low resistance path enables high amounts of current to be utilized without break down of the magnetic recording head.

Magnetic recording head with a cross-track current flow in a low resistance path

The present disclosure is generally related to a magnetic recording device comprising a magnetic recording head having a first current flow in a cross-track direction through a trailing shield. In one or more embodiments, a second current flows in a cross-track direction around the main pole. The magnetic recording device comprises a main pole disposed between a trailing shield, a leading shield, and side shields. A trailing gap is disposed between the side shields and the trailing shield. A high moment seed layer is disposed between the main pole and the trailing shield. A first insulation layer is disposed within the trailing shield and directs the first current through the trailing shield, guided to the proximity of the main pole. A second insulation layer, disposed below the trailing shield, directs the second current through the trailing shield, or alternatively through the side shields and around the main pole.

Magnetic recording head with assisting electric current in trailing shield

Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to a magnetic recording head assembly that includes an external alternating current (AC) source. A magnetic recording head of the magnetic recording head assembly includes a conductive structure between a main pole and a trailing shield. The conductive structure includes a conductive layer, and the conductive layer is nonmagnetic. The magnetic recording head assembly also includes an external AC source to supply AC current that flows through the conductive structure. In one aspect, the conductive structure is between a coil structure and the trailing shield, and the external AC source is coupled to the coil structure. The conductive structure and the external AC source facilitate consistently providing an enhanced AC writing field to facilitate effective and reliable writing, high ADC, high SNR, and reduced jitter.

Magnetic recording devices having external alternating current sources

The present disclosure is generally related to a magnetic recording device comprising a magnetic recording head. The magnetic recording head comprises a main pole (MP), a shield, and a spintronic device disposed between the MP and the shield. The spintronic device comprises a MP notch disposed on the MP, a first spin torque layer (STL), a second STL, a spin kill layer disposed between the first and second STLs, and a shield notch. The spin kill layer prevents spin torque from being transferred between the first STL and the second STL. In a forward stack where electrons flow from the MP to the shield, the MP notch comprises FeCr and the shield notch comprises CoFe. In a reverse stack where electrons flow from the shield to the MP, the MP notch comprises CoFe and the shield notch comprises FeCr.

Method to enhance spin torque layer performance in a spintronic device

The present disclosure generally relates to a magnetic recording system comprising a magnetic recording head. The magnetic recording head comprises a main pole, a shield, and a spintronic device disposed between the main pole and the shield. The spintronic device comprises a field generation layer (FGL) spaced a distance of about 2 nm to about 3 nm from the main pole, a first spacer layer disposed on the FGL, a spin torque layer (STL) disposed on the first spacer layer, a second spacer layer disposed on the STL, and a negative polarization layer (NPL) disposed between the second spacer layer and the shield. The spintronic device has a length of about 17 nm to about 21. During operation, the STL has a magnetization precession of about 16 degrees to about 170 degrees, and the FGL has a magnetization precession of about 60 degrees to about 70 degrees.

Dynamic DC field compensator for MAMR recording head

The present disclosure is generally related to a magnetic recording device comprising a magnetic recording head. The magnetic recording head comprises a main pole, a shield, and a spintronic device disposed between the main pole and the shield. The spintronic device comprises two field generation layers (FGLs), two spin polarization layers (SPLs), and two spin kill layers. The spintronic device further comprises one or more optional thin negative beta material layers, such as layers comprising FeCr, disposed in contact with at least one of the spin kill layers. When electric current is applied, the spin kill layers and optional negative beta material layers eliminate or reduce any spin torque between the FGLs and the SPLs.

Dual FGL and dual SPL spintronic device to reduce perpendicular field at writing location

The present disclosure is generally related to a magnetic recording device comprising a magnetic recording head. The magnetic recording head comprises a main pole, a hot seed layer, and a spintronic device disposed between the main pole and the hot seed layer. The spintronic device comprises two field generation layers (FGLs), two spin polarization layers (SPLs), and two spin kill layers. The second SPL of the spintronic device drives the second FGL. The spintronic device further comprises one or more optional thin negative beta material layers, such as layers comprising FeCr, disposed in contact with at least one of the spin kill layers. When electric current is applied, the spin kill layers and optional negative beta material layers eliminate or reduce any spin torque between the FGLs and the SPLs.

Spintronic device comprising dual FGL and dual SPL to reduce perpendicular field at writing location

The present disclosure generally relates to a spin torque element disposed between a main pole and a shield in a magnetic recording head. The shield could be a trailing shield, a side shield, or a leading shield. The spin torque element includes a dual layer spin transfer structure that is spaced from magnetic layers on either side using spacer layers. One magnetic layer that faces a positive polarizer has a positive polarization while another magnetic layer facing the negative polarizer has a negative polarization. As such, torque in the spacer layers is maximized when the direction of the magnetization in the STL is opposite to the gap field.

Recording head with a multilayer spin torque element having positive and negative beta materials

The present disclosure generally relates to a magnetic recording head comprising a spintronic device. By electrically coupling the side shielding of the head (acting as current leads) to the spin Hall layer of the spintronic device, the current path length is optimally provided across the spin Hall layer as well as fitting within the space constraints of the overall head. In addition, by using an antiferromagnetic insulator as a spacer between the spin Hall layer and the magnetic spin torque layer of the spintronic device, electrically shunting into the magnetic spin torque layer is reduced, maximizing the spin torque and reducing loss of efficiency due to shunting. Thus, the magnetic recording head may utilize the energy assistance from the spintronic device without reducing the quality and reliability of the write head by running an undesirable current through critical components of the write head.

Magnetic recording head with an SOT device coupled with side shield

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to magnetic recording heads (e.g., magnetic write heads) for magnetic recording devices (e.g., hard disk drives (HDD's)). A magnetic recording head includes, in a gap between a write pole and a trailing shield: a spin polarization layer (SPL), a free layer, and a spacer layer between the SPL and free layer. A spin torque layer (STL) is additionally included, and is separated from the free layer by a barrier layer that reduces or eliminates spin torque between the free layer and the STL. In one or more embodiments, to enable a thinner barrier layer, one or more dusting layers are inserted between the write pole and the trailing shield, and the one or more dusting layers are each formed of iron-chromium (FeCr). This helps maintain a thinner or narrower material stack in the gap and enhances writer performance.

Magnetic recording heads having one or more dusting layers for magnetic recording devices

Magnetic recording head having leads over the trailing shield for assisting electric currents

The present disclosure is generally related to a magnetic recording device comprising a magnetic recording head having a current flow in a cross-track direction around a main pole. The magnetic recording device comprises a main pole disposed between a trailing shield, a leading shield, and side shields. A trailing gap is disposed between the main pole and the trailing shield. A hot seed layer is disposed between the trailing gap and the trailing shield. A first insulation layer is disposed between the hot seed layer and the trailing shield, where the first insulation layer contacts the side shields. A second insulation layer is disposed between the main pole and leading shield, where the second insulation layer contacts the side shields. The first and second insulation layers direct the current through the side shields and across the main pole in a cross-track direction.

Cross track current design for energy assisted magnetic recording

The present disclosure relates to a magnetic recording head having an exchange biased leading shield or leading edge shield (LES). The LES is a bilayer structure. One or more layers are coupled below the LES such that the LES is disposed between the main pole and the one or more layers. The one or more layers exchange bias the LES such that the upper layer of the LES has a magnetization parallel to the magnetization of the trailing shield. The lower layer of the LES has a magnetization that is antiparallel to the magnetization of the upper layer of the LES. The one or more layers set the preferred direction for the lower layer of the LES and sets the LES as a two-domain state without relying upon the anisotropy field (Hk) of either the upper or lower layers of the LES.

Leading shield for magnetic recording heads

Growing community of inventors

Morgan Hill, CA, United States of America

Alexander Goncharov