Magnetoresistive sensor with soft adjacent layer with high magnetization, high resistivity, low intrinsic anisotropy and near zero magnetostriction

摘要

A soft adjacent layer with stiffness, high resistivity, low corrosion, and near zero magnetostriction is provided for the magnetoresistive sensor of the readhead. The magnetoresistive sensor may be any one of an anisotropic magnetoresistive sensor and a spin valve sensor. In both sensors, the soft adjacent layer is CoHfNb or CoHfNbFe. Hf is added to reduce corrosion, and Hf and Nb are balanced to provide nearly zero magnetization. Addition of Fe can increase the reduction of negative magnetostriction without weakening the magnetization of the alloy. Since CoHfNb has a much higher magnetization than NiFeCr, the soft adjacent layer of CoHfNb can be made thinner than the soft adjacent layer of NiFeCr, resulting in a higher resistance of the soft adjacent layer. When the resistance of the soft adjacent layer is higher, the shunting of the sense current through the soft adjacent layer becomes smaller, and the signal performance of the magnetoresistive read head is further improved.