Western Digital Technologies, Inc.

Muhammad Asif Bashir

Alexander Goncharov

Petrus Antonius Van Der Heijden

Zhigang Bai

Yunfei Ding

Yaguang Wei

James Terrence Olson

Venkatesh Chembrolu

Terence T Lam

Barry C Stipe

Takuya Matsumoto

Michael Kuok San Ho

James Mac Freitag

Aron Pentek

Lijie Guan

Changqing Shi

Youfeng Zheng

Xinjiang Shen

Zheng Gao

Quang Le

Yingjian Chen

Suping Song

Masato Shiimoto

Susumu Okamura

Hamid Balamane

Yongchul Ahn

Jian-Gang Zhu

Petrus Antonius Vanderheijden

Edward Hin Pong Lee

Amanda Baer

Petrus Antonius VanDerHeijden

Barry Cushing Stripe

Petrus Antonius Van Der Hemden

Yi Zhang

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 magnetic recording system comprising a magnetic recording head. The magnetic recording head comprises a main pole disposed at a media facing surface (MFS). The main pole is disposed between a trailing shield and a leading shield, the trailing shield and the leading shield each extending to the MFS. A first lead is disposed between the main pole and the trailing shield, and the first lead is recessed from the MFS. A first portion of the first lead is disposed in contact with the main pole. A first insulating layer is disposed between and in contact with a second portion of the first lead and the main pole, and the first insulating layer being recessed from the MFS. The first lead and the first insulating layer direct a current through the main pole at a location recessed from the MFS.

Current distal to media facing surface

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

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

A heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) head has a slider with a gas-bearing-surface (GBS). The slider supports a near-field transducer (NFT) and a main magnetic pole that has a step or recess in the NFT-facing surface near the GBS that contains plasmonic material. A thermal shunt is located between the NFT and the main pole to allow heat to be transferred away from the optical spot generated by the NFT. The NFT-facing surface of the main pole that is recessed from the step away from the GBS is in contact with the thermal shunt, and the thermal shunt is in contact with the plasmonic material in the step in the back region recessed from the GBS, so there is no increase in the spacing between the NFT and a large portion of the main pole.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Muhammad Asif Bashir