SPIN VALVE SENSOR WITH A METAL AND METAL OXIDE CAP LAYER STRUCTURE

摘要

A cap layer structure (226) for a spin valve sensor (74) is provided with a first layer composed of a metal (228) and a second cap layer composed of a metal oxide (230). The first cap layer reflects conduction electrons back into the mean free path of conduction electrons and the second cap layer protects the first cap layer from subsequent processing steps without degrading the performance of the first cap layer.