Patent ID: 8563147

Claim:
A hard bias structure for providing longitudinal bias to a free layer in an adjacent sensor element in a magnetic recording device wherein said sensor element has a plurality of layers, a top surface, a first sidewall adjoining a first side of the free layer, and a second sidewall adjoining a second side of the free layer, comprising: (a) a composite seed layer including at least a lower Ta layer formed on a substrate and a metal (M1) layer having a fcc(111) or hcp(001) crystal structure disposed on the lower Ta layer; said composite seed layer has a horizontal section formed in a plane that is parallel to the planes of the plurality of layers in said sensor element and a second section formed along the sensor sidewalls and connected to the horizontal section; and (b) a pair of (R1/R2) x laminated hard bias layers having inherent perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) and formed on the composite seed layer where R1 is Co or CoFe, R2 is NiFe, or NiCo, and x is an integer, and wherein a thickness (t 2 ) of each R2 layer is greater than a thickness (t 1 ) of each R1 layer, a first laminated hard bias layer is formed on the first sidewall and has a magnetization in a direction perpendicular to the first sidewall and the free layer, and a second laminated hard bias layer is formed on the second sidewall and has a magnetization in a direction away from the second sidewall and the free layer.