Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Katsuhiko Koi

Hitoshi Iwasaki

Hideaki Fukuzawa

Masashi Sahashi

Hiromi Fuke

Hiroshi Tomita

Masatoshi Yoshikawa

Hiromi Yuasa

Yuzo Kamiguchi

There are provided a magnetoresistance effect element, a magnetic head, a magnetic head assembly and a magnetic recording system, which have high sensitivity and high reliability. The magnetoresistance effect element has two ferromagnetic layers, a non-magnetic layer provided between the ferromagnetic layers, and a layer containing an oxide or nitride as a principal component, wherein the layer containing the oxide or nitride as the principal component contains a magnetic transition metal element which does not bond to oxygen and nitrogen and which is at least one of Co, Fe and Ni.

Magnetoresistance effect element with a layer containing an oxide as a principal component and containing a magnetic transition metal element which does not bond to oxygen

Magnetoresistance effect element

A first layer region of a magnetically pinned layer in a spin valve structure, which is relatively remoter from a non-magnetic intermediate layer, is made of a ferromagnetic material containing at least one element selected from the group consisting of Cr (chrome), Rh (rhodium), Os (osmium), Re (rhenium), Si (silicon), Al (aluminum), Be (beryllium), Ga (gallium), Ge (germanium), Te (tellurium), B (boron), V (vanadium), Ru (ruthenium), Ir (iridium), W (tungsten), Mo (molybdenum), Au (gold), Pt (platinum), Ag (silver) and Cu (copper). Thereby, it is possible to provide a structure of the magnetically pinned layer, which can be readily made using a conventional deposition method and can ensure a sufficient electron reflecting effect on the part of the magnetically pinned layer, and to provide a magnetoresistive element using a spin valve film including the particular structure.

Magnetoresistive element and magnetic recording apparatus

A magnetoresistance effect film including a magnetically pinned layer, a non-magnetic intermediate layer and a magnetically free layer has sidewall layers covering at least side surfaces of the magnetically pinned layer and the non-magnetic intermediate layer. The sidewall layers are made of a high-resistance oxide, nitride, fluoride, boride, sulfide or carbide having a specular reflection effect against conduction electrons, thereby to prevent non-elastic scattering of electrons and missing of spin information on side surfaces of the magnetoresistance effect film.

Magnetoresistance effect element, magnetic head and magnetic reproducing apparatus

Growing community of inventors

Kawasaki, Japan

Katsuhiko Koi