Patent · US Expired

Giant magnetoresistive effect sensor, particularly having a multilayered magnetic thin film layer

US5648885A · kind A · utility

75Cited by
8References
56Claims
0Family size

Assignees

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 31, 1995
Grant dateJul 15, 1997
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 31, 2015

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG11B2005/3996
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A spin-valve read head of the giant magnetoresistive type in a data storage system has at least one magnetic thin film layer comprising a plurality of magnetic thinner film layers of ferromagnetic material with the same crystal plane orientation from one magnetic thinner film to another, and an interface between adjacent magnetic thinner films having a discontinuity in single-crystal epitaxial growth. Each magnetic thinner film layer is composed of an alloy including each of Fe, Ni and Co and has a weight ratio of Co:Fe equal to 90:10. The crystal has a crystal structure that is face centered cubic and a crystal plane orientation (111) that is highly ordered. The interfaces may be layers of Ni or Cu. The layers all exhibit a condition of magnetic orientation and annealed structure resulting from being annealed and cooled in a magnetic field sufficiently to have an anisotropic energy of the first magnetic thin film layer in an equilibrium state that is smaller than an identical structure before annealing.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.