Oliff & Berridge, PLC.
Magnetic transducer and thin-film magnetic head having a stacked structure including an interlayer having a high electrical resistance
A magnetic transducer and a thin film magnetic head capable of increasing a resistance change are provided. A spin valve film has a stacked structure comprising a soft magnetic layer, a nonmagnetic layer, a ferromagnetic layer, an antiferromagnetic layer and a protective layer which are stacked in sequence on an underlying layer. Electrical resistance is changed in accordance with a relative angle between the orientation of magnetization of the ferromagnetic layer and the orientation of magnetization of the soft magnetic layer. The ferromagnetic layer includes an inner ferromagnetic layer, a coupling layer and an outer ferromagnetic layer. The inner ferromagnetic layer and the outer ferromagnetic layer are magnetically coupled to each other sandwiching the coupling layer, whereby the magnetizations oriented in opposite directions are generated. A ferromagnetic interlayer having magnetism and the electrical resistance higher than the electrical resistance of the inner ferromagnetic layer is included in the inner ferromagnetic layer closest to the nonmagnetic layer in the ferromagnetic layer. When a current flows through the stack, the ferromagnetic interlayer reflects at least some electrons and limits a route for the electrons and thus a rate of resistance change is increased.
TDK Corporation
G G G B B H G
G01R G11B G11B B82Y B82Y H01F G11B
inventional inventional additional inventional inventional inventional additional
Yoshihiro Masashi Satoru
Tsuchiya Sano Araki