The magnetic tape drive includes: a first magnetic head that has a first magnetic element acting on a magnetic layer formed on a first surface of a magnetic tape; a first support member that is disposed at a position facing the first magnetic head with the magnetic tape interposed therebetween and faces a second surface which is a surface of the magnetic tape on a side opposite to the first surface; and an air membrane forming device that forms an air membrane between the magnetic tape and the first support member.

The present invention is directed to the fabrication of head sliders for use in hard disk drives, and in particular the provision and usage of electrical bond pads on the slider surface structure to accommodate needs of the fabrication process as well as slider operation within a disk drive.

A heat-assisted magnetic recording device is disposed in a hermetically sealed enclosure. The device includes a slider comprising a reader, a writer, and an optical waveguide configured to couple light from a light source to a near-field transducer situated at or near an air bearing surface of the slider. The near-field transducer comprises an enlarged portion and a peg extending from the enlarged portion in a direction of the air bearing surface. A fill gas is provided within the enclosure. The fill gas comprises a mixture of a low-density, inert gas and at least one gas that oxidizes carbon, where the total carbon oxidizing gas concentration of the fill gas is 3-50% by volume. In certain embodiments, the fill gas comprises a hydrogen concentration sufficient to retard oxidation of the peg when the peg is at an operating temperature associated with write operations.

A magnetic recording writer is disclosed. In some embodiments, the writer includes a main pole having a front portion and a back portion, a gap layer surround the main pole at the ABS, and a shield structure. The front portion includes a pole tip at an ABS plane, a pole tip thickness in a down-track direction, and curved sidewalls on each side of a center plane that is orthogonal to the ABS and bisects the main pole. The back portion includes first flared sidewalls extending from the curved sidewalls at an angle between 0 and 25 degrees relative to planes parallel to the center plane. The shield structure includes sidewalls having a sidewall portion facing the main pole and formed substantially conformal to the curved sidewalls up to a height of about 30-200 nm where the sidewall portions no longer follow the shape of the main pole.

This magnetic recording head includes a main magnetic pole, a write shield, and an oscillation element. The oscillation element has a first oscillation portion, a second oscillation portion, and a non-magnetic conductive layer provided therebetween. The oscillation element has a first current path connecting the main magnetic pole and the non-magnetic conductive layer to each other, and a second current path connecting the write shield and the non-magnetic conductive layer to each other.

A magnetic recording device includes a main pole, a coil around the main pole, a trailing shield, and a leading shield. A trailing gap is between the main pole and the trailing shield. In one embodiment, the trailing gap includes a non-magnetic conductive material. In another embodiment, the trailing gap includes a spin torque oscillator device. A leading gap is between the main pole and the leading shield. The leading gap includes a non-magnetic conductive material. The main pole is coupled to a first terminal. The trailing shield coupled to a second terminal. The leading shield is coupled to a third terminal.

The present disclosure generally relates to data storage devices, and more specifically, to a magnetic media drive employing a magnetic recording head. The magnetic recording head comprises a main pole and a trailing shield disposed adjacent to the main pole. A recessed edge of the trailing shield has throat heights varying in the cross-track direction. In one embodiment, a central portion of the trailing shield disposed adjacent or closest to the main pole has a first throat height less than a second throat height of outer portions of the trailing shield further from the main pole. In another embodiment, the central portion of the trailing shield has a first throat height greater than a second throat height of outer portions of the trailing shield. The trailing shield having varying throat heights in the cross-track direction strengthens the writing capability or improves the XTI of the magnetic recording head.

The present disclosure generally relate to spin-orbit torque (SOT) devices comprising a topological insulator (TI) modulation layer. The TI modulation layer comprises a plurality of bismuth or bismuth-rich composition modulation layers, a plurality of TI lamellae layers comprising BiSb having a (012) crystal orientation, and a plurality of texturing layers. The TI lamellae layers comprise dopants or clusters of atoms, the clusters of atoms comprising a carbide, a nitride, an oxide, or a composite ceramic material. The clusters of atoms are configured to have a grain boundary glass forming temperature of less than about 400° C. Doping the TI lamellae layers comprising BiSb having a (012) crystal orientation with clusters of atoms comprising a carbide, a nitride, an oxide, or a composite ceramic material enable the SOT MTJ device to operate at higher temperatures while inhibiting migration of Sb from the BiSb of the TI lamellae layers.

A buffer layer can be used to smooth the surface roughness of a galvanic contact layer (e.g., of niobium) in an electronic device, the buffer layer being made of a stack of at least four (e.g., six) layers of a face-centered cubic (FCC) crystal structure material, such as copper, the at least four FCC material layers alternating with at least three layers of a body-centered cubic (BCC) crystal structure material, such as niobium, wherein each of the FCC material layers and BCC material layers is between about five and about ten angstroms thick. The buffer layer can provide the smoothing while still maintaining desirable transport properties of a device in which the buffer layer is used, such as a magnetic Josephson junction, and magnetics of an overlying magnetic layer in the device, thereby permitting for improved magnetic Josephson junctions (MJJs) and thus improved superconducting memory arrays and other devices.

According to one embodiment, a disk device includes a magnetic disk, a load beam, a flexure, a head unit, and a first restrictor. The load beam has a first face facing the magnetic disk. The flexure is attached to the first face. The head unit includes: a magnetic head attached to the flexure, configured to read and write information from and to the magnetic disk; and a heat-assister attached to the magnetic head, configured to heat the magnetic disk. The first restrictor is included in the head unit, configured to come in contact with at least one of the load beam and the flexure along with movement of the magnetic head away from the first face by a first distance.