Fabrication and Recording Study of All-Metal Dual-Spin-Valve CPP Read Heads

Magnetic recording read heads have been fabricated and tested using a dual-spin-valve (dual-SV) current-perpendicular-to-plane (CPP) giant magnetoresistive (GMR) sensor stack. Thin IrMn antiferromagnetic layers are used for top- and bottom-pinned layers, resulting in a total sensor stack height of 50 nm. Operational read heads with physical sensor trackwidths ranging from 60 to 30 nm have been achieved. Successful readback testing is obtained using perpendicular recording media, with observed magnetic read widths as low as 46 nm