抄録
With the increase in the recording density of hard disk drives, the narrower magnetic pole and read-sensor widths in writing and reading heads are required, and techniques used for the magnetic behavior analysis in a nanoscale area is essential. The observation of the in-plane domain structure of the writer pole for a perpendicular recording (PMR) head was performed by electron holography in order to elucidate the mechanism of the pole erasure originating from the instability of the magnetic domain state. The results revealed that the stability of the domain structure is strongly related to the domain wall trapping, and the pole erasure can be suppressed by realizing the stable domain structures. With respect to a current perpendicular to plane (CPP)-giant magneto-resistive (GMR) head, which has been promising candidates of a next-generation reading head element, the insertion of non-magnetic materials, such as Cu, between the ferromagnetic pinned and free layers is known to increase the MR ratio. For realizing the practical use of the CPP-GMR head, effects of the insertion of materials on the increase in the MR ratio were investigated by X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD). The results revealed that XMCD is a powerful technique to obtain information on electronic states and magnetic moments with the help of the theoretical electronic band calculation. The potential application of secondary cantilever resonance magnetic force microscopy and spin-polarized scanning electron microscope to the in-situ magnetic imaging of PMR heads will be also discussed.
