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US 2003/0192168 A1Published application
FeTa nano-oxide layer in pinned layer for enhancement of giant magnetoresistance in bottom spin valve structures
AssigneeHeadway Technologies, Inc.
InventorsMin Li, Simon H. Liao, Masashi Sano, Kiyoshi Noguchi, Kochan Ju, Cheng T. Horng
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Abstract
A method for forming a bottom spin valve sensor having a synthetic antiferromagnetic pinned (SyAP) layer, antiferromagnetically coupled to a pinning layer, in which one of the layers of the SyAP is formed as a three layer lamination that contains a specularly reflecting oxide layer of FeTaO. The sensor formed according to this method has an extremely high GMR ratio and exhibits good pinning strength.
Claims39
A method for forming a bottom spin valve magnetoresistive sensor element comprising:
- providing a substrate;
- forming on the substrate a magnetoresistive-property-enhancing seed layer;
- forming on said seed layer a pinning layer of antiferromagnetic material;
- forming on said pinning layer a second antiparallel (AP2) pinned layer of ferromagnetic material;
- forming on said second antiparallel (AP2) pinned layer a non-magnetic coupling layer;
- forming on said non-magnetic coupling layer a first antiparallel (AP1) pinned layer, said layer comprising a first ferromagnetic layer on which is formed a specular reflection enhancing layer on which is formed a second ferromagnetic layer;
- forming on said second ferromagnetic layer a non-magnetic spacer layer;
- forming on said non-magnetic spacer layer a ferromagnetic free layer;
- forming on said ferromagnetic free layer a double-layer capping layer, said capping layer comprising a first layer of non-magnetic material on which is formed a second layer of non-magnetic material;
- thermally annealing said sensor element at a prescribed succession of temperatures in the presence of a corresponding sequence of external magnetic fields, establishing, thereby the magnetizations of said free and said pinned magnetic layers.
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A bottom spin valve magnetoresistive sensor element comprising:
- a substrate;
- a magnetoresistive-property-enhancing seed layer formed on the substrate;
- a pinning layer of antiferromagnetic material formed on the seed layer;
- a synthetic antiferromagnetic pinned (SyAP) layer, further comprising:
- a second antiparallel (AP2) pinned layer of ferromagnetic material formed on the pinning layer;
- a non-magnetic coupling layer formed on said AP2 layer;
- and
- a first antiparallel (AP1) pinned layer formed on said non-magnetic coupling layer, said layer comprising a first ferromagnetic layer on which is formed a specular reflection enhancing layer on which is formed a second ferromagnetic layer;
- a non-magnetic spacer layer formed on said second ferromagnetic layer;
- a ferromagnetic free layer formed on said non-magnetic spacer layer;
- a double-layer capping layer formed on said ferromagnetic free layer, said capping layer comprising a first layer of non-magnetic material on which is formed a second layer of non-magnetic material.
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Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.