Abstract
The dependence of the magnetic anisotropy of the thin film heads on the side angle of the yoke was studied. Because of the increase of yoke reluctance, it had been thought that the reproducing sensitivity decreases with the increase of side angle. However, measurement revealed that the reproducing sensitivity increases with the side angle. To determine the reason for this sensitivity increase, the stress and the stress induced anisotropy were calculated threedimensionally. According to these analyses the magnitude of the tensile stress along the hard axis increased with the side angle, and therefore the anisotropy field decreased when the heads had a positive magnetostriction constant. Decrease of the anisotropy field was confirmed by observations using the magneto-optic Kerr effect. It is thus concluded that the side angle affects the magnitude of the magnetic anisotropy, in addition to the yoke reluctance and the domain structure.
