Patent ID: 7283337

Claim:
A hard bias structure for providing a longitudinal bias to a free layer in a magnetoresistive (MR) element within a magnetic read head, said MR element has two sides adjoining an air bearing surface (ABS) and said hard bias structure is formed on a substrate on each side of the MR element and comprises: (a) a first antiferromagnetic (AFM1) layer; (b) a ferromagnetic (FM) layer on the AFM1 layer; (c) a hard bias (HB) layer formed on the FM layer and having a sufficiently high negative magnetostriction (λ S ) value such that a compressive stress resulting from a lapping process will induce a strong in-plane anisotropy in said hard bias layer that effectively maintains a single magnetic domain state in the free layer; and (d) a second FM layer on the hard bias layer to form a AFM1/FM/HB/FM configuration.