摘要 |
A current-perpendicular-to-the-plane (CPP) magnetoresistive (MR) sensor has a reference layer formed as an exchange-coupled structure. The exchange-coupled structure includes a patterned layer formed of alternating stripes of ferromagnetic stripes and nonmagnetic stripes, and a continuous unpatterned ferromagnetic layer in contact with and exchange-coupled to the ferromagnetic stripes of the patterned layer. The ferromagnetic stripes have a length-to-width aspect ratio of at least 2, which results in increased uniaxial anisotropy of the exchange-coupled ferromagnetic layer. |