A Ni-Mn spin valve for high density recording

A spin value with a Ni-Mn pinning layer has been annealed in a field parallel and perpendicular to the easy axis of its Co reference layer, and found to exhibit high thermal stability. After a parallel-field anneal for 13.2 h at 280/spl deg/C, this Ni-Mn spin valve still exhibits a low ferromagnetic coupling field (4.9 Oe) and a high giant magnetoresistance (GMR) coefficient (9.2%). After a perpendicular-field anneal for 13.2 h at 180/spl deg/C, its Co reference layer is rotated by 19.8/spl deg/. This Ni-Mn spin valve has been implemented into a head manufacturing process and used as a 10 Gb/in/sup 2/ read sensor in a commercially available notebook computer. Its read performance has been studied from transfer curves, microtrack profiles and readback waveforms. With a sense current of 4 mA, signal sensitivity of 2.38 mV//spl mu/m has been attained.