Western Digital (fremont), Inc.

Lena Miloslavsky

Chang-Man Park

Shin Funada

Dustin Erickson

Amritpal Singh Rana

A method and system for providing a magnetoresistive structure is disclosed. The magnetoresistive structure includes a pinned layer, a nonmagnetic spacer layer, a free layer, a specular layer, a barrier layer, and a capping layer. The spacer layer resides between the pinned layer and the free layer. The free layer is electrically conductive and resides between the specular layer and the nonmagnetic spacer layer. The specular layer is adjacent to the free layer and includes at least one of titanium oxide, yttrium oxide, hafnium oxide, magnesium oxide, aluminum oxide, nickel oxide, iron oxide, zirconium oxide, niobium oxide, and tantalum oxide. The barrier layer resides between the specular layer and the capping layer. The barrier layer is nonmagnetic and includes a first material. The capping layer includes a second material different from the first material.

Magnetoresistive structure having a novel specular and barrier layer combination

A method and system for providing a magnetoresistive structure is disclosed. The magnetoresistive structure includes a pinned layer, a nonmagnetic spacer layer, a free layer, a filter layer, a specular layer, a barrier layer, and a capping layer. The nonmagnetic spacer layer resides between the pinned layer and the free layer. The free layer is electrically conductive and resides between the filter layer and the nonmagnetic spacer layer. The specular layer includes a first material and is electrically insulating. The barrier layer resides between the specular oxide layer and the capping layer. The barrier layer is nonmagnetic and includes a second material different material from the first material. The capping layer includes a third material different from the second material.

Magnetoresistive structure having a novel specular and filter layer combination

A method and system for providing a spin filter is disclosed. The method and system include providing a pinned layer, a free layer, and a conductive nonmagnetic spacer layer between the pinned layer and the free layer. The method and system also include providing a spin filter layer and a capping layer on the spin filter layer. The spin filter layer is adjacent to the free layer. The spin filter layer is on an opposite side of the free layer as the nonmagnetic spacer layer and includes at least Pt and/or Rh. The capping layer has a specular reflection layer therein. In one aspect, the specular reflection layer allows specular reflection of current carriers traveling from the spin filter layer to the specular reflection layer. In another aspect, the specular reflection layer includes at least Ta, Ti, Zr, Hf, Nb, Al, Mo, W, Si, Cr, V, Ni, Co, and Fe.

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Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Lena Miloslavsky