Current-pinned, current resettable soft AP-pinned spin valve sensor

摘要

A soft anti-parallel (AP)-pinned spin valve (SV) sensor comprising an AP-pinned layer separated from a ferromagnetic free layer by a non-magnetic electrically conducting spacer. The AP-pinned layer includes a first ferromagnetic pinned layer separated from a second ferromagnetic pinned layer by an anti-parallel coupling layer. The second pinned layer further includes a first and second ferromagnetic sub-layers. The first pinned layer which is the farthest pinned layer from the free layer is made of soft (low coercivity) magnetic material. The use of a low coercivity first pinned layer allows the magnetic field generated by the sense current to be used in setting the magnetizations directions of the pinned layer and reset the magnetization direction during the disk operation in the case that the magnetization direction becomes random.