Patent ID: 8988833
Filing Date: 2015-03-24
Classification: G11B

Abstract:
1. A current-perpendicular-to-the plane magnetoresistive read head for reading magnetically recorded data from tracks on a magnetic recording disk in a disk drive, the head comprising: an air-bearing slider having an air-bearing surface (ABS) for facing the disk and a trailing surface generally orthogonal to the ABS; a first shield layer on the trailing surface; a bottom electrode layer selected from Cu, Au, Ag and AgSn on the first shield layer; a sensor stack of layers on the bottom electrode layer including a pinned ferromagnetic layer having an in-plane magnetization generally orthogonal to the ABS, a nonmagnetic spacer layer selected from Ag, Cu and a Cu alloy on the pinned layer, and a free ferromagnetic layer on the spacer layer and having an in-plane magnetization generally parallel to the ABS in the absence of an external magnetic field and free to rotate in the presence of magnetic fields from recorded data on the disk, the free layer having two spaced-apart side edges that define a trackwidth (TW) parallel to the ABS and a back edge recessed a stripe height (SH) distance from the ABS; a top electrode layer selected from Cu, Au, Ag and AgSn on the sensor stack; and a second shield layer on the top electrode layer; and wherein the bottom electrode layer has two spaced-apart side edges recessed from the side edges of the free layer that define a width (W