Compositional Variations of Co-based Thin films for Biasing Magnets in GMR/TMR Read Heads

A combination of several techniques including transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and 3DAP are used to characterize ion beam deposited Co 70 Cr 10 Pt 20 thin films on Cr seed layers. The films are deposited at two different angles, 0 and 25deg. Results show increased coercivity, lower stress and smaller average grain size for the film deposited at a larger deposition angle