Thin film magnetic head, magnetic head slider, head gimbal assembly, head arm assembly, magnetic disk device and method of manufacturing thin film magnetic head

摘要

A thin film magnetic head including a magnetoresistive element (MR) having higher reading performance. In manufacturing the thin film magnetic head, after forming an MR element, a pair of magnetic domain controlling layers are formed by stacking a buffer layer, a magnetic bias layer and a first cap layer in this order on both sides, in a track-width direction, of the MR element via an insulating layer, respectively. Then, a second cap layer is formed to cover the upper surface of the MR element and connect the pair of cap-layers. Then, a gap adjustment layer and a top shielding layer are formed to cover the pair of first cap layers and the second cap layer, completing a read head section.