Process and structure to fabricate spin valve heads for ultra-high recording density application

摘要

A method for forming a bottom spin-valve GMR sensor having ultra-thin layers of high density and smoothness and possessing oxygen surfactant layers as a result of the layers being sputtered in a mixture of Ar and O2. A particularly novel feature of the method is the use of a sputtering chamber with an ultra-low base pressure and correspondingly ultra-low pressure mixtures of Ar and O2 sputtering gas (<0.5 millitorr) in which the admixed oxygen has a partial pressure of less than 5x10<-9 >torr.