Thermal stability of NiMn spin valve heads

Zhang, Y.B.; Heijden, A. van der; Nozières, J. P.; Pentek, K.; Chin, T.K.; Tuchscherer, T.; Zeltser, A.; Blank, H.-R.; Trotter, S.; Jaren, S.; Speriosu, V. S.

doi:10.1109/20.846222

Cited by 11 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…In particular, NiO films 1 -3 and Mn-based alloy films 4,5 are considered for this purpose, NiO is distinguished by its superior chemical stability, in principle, and its insulating characteristics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

XPS depth profile analysis of non‐stoichiometric NiO films

Oswald

Brückner

2004

Surface & Interface Analysis

261

142

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Antiferromagnetic NiO films used for pinning layers in spin valve systems were prepared by reactive sputtering from an NiO target with variation of the oxygen/argon mixture in the sputter gas. Using XPS depth profiling we investigated the NiO x overstoichiometry (x > 1) in the films that was found by other methods and the chemical changes in the films during annealing. A direct detection of Ni 3+ failed because of strong preferential sputtering with the formation of metallic Ni during sputtering. By means of factor analysis a qualitative description of the overstoichiometry is possible. Indirectly it could be shown that metallic Ni is already formed in the oxide layers during annealing. It can be concluded that the stability of the NiO x films decreases with increasing deviation from stoichiometry (x > 1).

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

XPS depth profile analysis of non‐stoichiometric NiO films

Oswald

Brückner

2004

Surface & Interface Analysis

261

142

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“…This clearly indicates that partial rotations of the pinned layer have occurred, in agreement with the sheet film data discussed above. Such a behavior is markedly different from what has been observed in NiMn-based spin valve heads, where no modifications of the head characteristics were observed prior to stripe melting [15].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…The corresponding temperature can be either deduced from analytical 2-D modeling [17] or by using the resistance change as a temperature gauge [15]. The resistance and at the operating current ( mA) after heating at the high current are reported in Fig.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inverted spin valves with IrMn biasing layer

et al. 2000

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Inverted IrMn-based spin valves (ISV) were fabricated with the aim of low thickness/high output dual spin valve applications. Optimized structures exhibit the following characteristics: = 750 Oe, = 18 5 /sq., 1 = 7 5% and = 250 C with IrMn thickness as low as 75 A. The blocking temperature distribution, however, exhibits non zero components from 150 C onwards. Accordingly, accelerated sheet films lifetime experiments and current heating on full read/write heads show that partial rotations of the pinned layer occur well below . These structures therefore appear to be insufficiently stable for disk-drive applications.

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“…Recent studies [1], [2] of spin valve thermal stability in exchange-biased bilayers, have been based on anneals in a strong reverse magnetic field. For the reasons already mentioned, in the present experiments, as in [3], the field is applied transverse to the initial direction of exchange anisotropy.…”

Section: Pinned Layer Stabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Kinetics of pinned layer and free layer relaxation upon hard axis anneal of NiMn spin valves

et al. 2001

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We discuss the results of a systematic study of the magnetic stability of both free and pinned layers in NiMn based spin valves upon hard axis anneals at temperatures ranging from 120 C to 200 C. For the free layer, the relaxation of the anisotropy follows a ln( ) dependence, where is the anneal temperature and is the anneal time. By contrast, the rotation of the pinned layer unidirectional anisotropy angle does not follow a simple logarithmic time dependence. A further difference lies in the relaxation rate, which in these particular spin valves is much more rapid for the free layer than the pinned layer. Significant training effects are observed when the sample is subjected to repeated major easy axis loops. In addition to the well known shrinkage of the pinned layer loop, we find that the training is associated with a net rotation of the unidirectional axis be as much as 10 degrees.Index Terms-Activation energy, anisotropy, free layer relaxation, hard-axis anneals, NiMn Spin Valve, pinned layer relaxation, training effect.

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Thermal stability of NiMn spin valve heads

Cited by 11 publications

References 20 publications

XPS depth profile analysis of non‐stoichiometric NiO films

XPS depth profile analysis of non‐stoichiometric NiO films

Inverted spin valves with IrMn biasing layer

Kinetics of pinned layer and free layer relaxation upon hard axis anneal of NiMn spin valves

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