Biasing of spin filter spin valve for magnetic read head

The work presented in this thesis examines the biasing behavior of several types of spin valve structures that have been published in the literature. These include the conventional spin valve, the spin filter spin valve and the synthetic antiferromagnetic spin valve. Specially, these structures are examined with regard to the coupling between the free layer and the reference layer and the canting angle of the reference layer. Both of these phenomena have a significant effect on the bias point of a spin valve head. Coupling has been studied using a temperature dependent method for separating different types of coupling. Additionally, an angular dependent measurement method has been designed to identify the magnetic layers response to measure the canting angle of the pinned layer for sheet films and patterned spin valve devices. This measurement method provides quantitative understanding of the behavior of the ferromagnetic layer response. It also can identify the pinning strength of the material. This study can support the design of spin valve read head for hard disk drive, tape drive and magnetic memory device. It has been used in this work in the context of spin valve devices appropriate for tape heads.