High resistivity films for AP layers in spin valves

Abstract

In a spin valve, at least one AP pinned sublayer and/or one AP free sublayer comprise high resistivity alloys of the type AB, wherein A is selected from the group consisting of CoFe, NiFe, and CoFeNi, and B is selected from the group consisting of B, Ta, Nb, Zr, and/or Hf. The resistivity value of the highly resistive layer is typically between about 30 μΩ-cm and 100 μΩ-cm. The highly resistive layers reduce the shunting of the sense current away from the rest of the structure, and prevent electrons from being shunted away from the active region of the spin valve and, thus, reducing ΔR/R. The spin valve of this layered structure can increase the overall sheet resistance and optimize the ΔR/R value of the spin valve.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.