Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.v.

International Business Machines Corporation

Danielle Mauri

Tsann Lin

Alexander Michael Zeltser

Wen-yaung Lee

A method for fabricating a magnetic head including a spin valve sensor having a sensor layer stack that includes a pinned magnetic layer, a spacer layer formed on the pinned magnetic layer, and a free magnetic layer formed on the spacer layer. In a preferred embodiment the spacer layer is comprised of CuO. The method includes the plasma smoothing of the upper surface of the pinned magnetic layer prior to depositing the spacer layer, and a preferred plasma gas is a mixture of argon and oxygen.

Method for fabricating a magnetic head including a read sensor

A magnetic head including a spin valve sensor having a sensor layer stack that includes a pinned magnetic layer, a spacer layer formed on the pinned magnetic layer, and a free magnetic layer formed on the spacer layer. In a preferred embodiment the spacer layer is comprised of CuO. Plasma smoothing of the upper surface of the pinned magnetic layer is conducted prior to depositing the spacer layer, and a preferred plasma gas is a mixture of argon and oxygen.

Spin valve having copper oxide spacer layer with specified coupling field strength between multi-layer free and pinned layer structures

A self-biased spin valve (SV) magnetoresistive (MR) sensor is disclosed having a free layer separated from a pinned layer by a spacer1 layer and further having the free layer separated from a keeper layer by a spacer2 layer. The free layer being disposed between the keeper layer and the pinned layer. The keeper layer in combination with the sense current flowing in the sensor is used as a means of pinning the magnetization of the pinned layer. By using the soft keeper layer in combination with the sense current as a means of pinning the pinned layer magnetization as opposed to the use of the conventional antiferromagnetic layer, the SV sensor dependency on the blocking temperature of the antiferromagnetic layer is eliminated.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Danielle Mauri