The present disclosure generally relates to spin-orbital torque (SOT) differential reader designs. The SOT differential reader is a multi-terminal device that comprises a first shield, a first spin hall effect layer, a first free layer, a gap layer, a second spin hall effect layer, a second free layer, and a second shield. The gap layer is disposed between the first spin hall effect layer and the second spin hall effect layer. Electrical lead connections are located about the first spin hall effect layer, the second spin hall effect layer, the gap layer, the first shield, and/or the second shield. The electrical lead connections facilitate the flow of current and/or voltage from a negative lead to a positive lead. The positioning of the electrical lead connections and the positioning of the SOT differential layers improves reader resolution without decreasing the shield-to-shield spacing (i.e., read-gap).

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.

A reader of a magnetic recording head includes a sensor stack, a first side shield and a second side shield disposed on opposite sides of the sensor stack in a cross-track dimension, and a bridge. The bridge is configured to align magnetic moments of the first side shield and the second side shield. The bridge is disposed above the sensor stack relative to a media-facing surface of the magnetic recording head and proximate to the first side shield and the second side shield.

A manufacturing method for a magnetoresistive element includes: a step of forming a stack; a step of forming an insulating film to cover the stack; a step of forming an initial magnetic layer to cover the stack and the insulating film so that a thickness of the initial magnetic layer in a first direction is greater than a thickness of the stack in the first direction; a step of forming an organic material film on the initial magnetic layer; and an etching step of etching a part of the initial magnetic layer and the organic material film by ion beam etching so that the initial magnetic layer becomes a pair of magnetic layers.

Aspects of the present disclosure provide various magnetic recording slider structures and fabrication methods that can reduce head overcoat (HOC) thickness without significantly reducing the lifetime and reliability of a slider by using a protective cap placed on preselected locations on the outermost surface or HOC of the slider. A slider includes a writer comprising an energy-assisted recording element. The writer is configured to store information on a magnetic medium using the energy-assisted recording element. The slider includes a head overcoat (HOC) layer providing an outermost media facing surface. The slider further includes a protective cap positioned on the HOC layer to at least partially cover the energy-assisted recording element, the protective cap including a preselected shape configured to protect the energy-assisted recording element.

A magnetic recording write head and system has a spin-torque oscillator (STO) located between the write head's write pole and trailing shield. The STO's ferromagnetic free layer is located near the write pole with a multilayer seed layer between the write pole and the free layer. The STO's nonmagnetic spacer layer is between the free layer and the STO's ferromagnetic polarizer. The polarizer may be the trailing shield of the write head, one or more separate polarizer layers, or combinations thereof. The STO electrical circuitry causes electron flow from the write pole to the trailing shield. The multilayer seed layer removes the spin polarization of electrons from the write pole, which enables electrons reflected from the polarizer layer to become spin polarized, which creates the spin transfer torque on the magnetization of the free layer. The multilayer seed layer includes a Mn or a Mn-alloy layer.

The present disclosure relates to pretreating a magnetic recording head for magnetic media drive. For a heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) head, a light source provides the necessary heat for the drive to operation. A vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) is mounted to a top surface of a slider. A plurality of laser beams are emitted from the bottom surface of the VCSEL and directed to a corresponding number of waveguide structures within the HAMR head. The waveguide structures feed into a multimode interference (MMI) device that then directs the laser into a single waveguide for focusing on a near field transducer (NFT). The VCSEL lasers are phase coherent and have no mode hopping.

According to one embodiment, among a plurality of magnetic heads, the larger the magnetic pole width of the magnetic pole of the magnetic head in the width direction of a recording track formed in a recording layer or the larger an area width of the magnetic head capable of reading the magnetic characteristics of an area of the recording layer on which magnetic recording has been carried out by means of the magnetic head, the farther is the magnetic head arranged outwardly from the vicinity of the center in the parallel arrangement direction of the magnetic disks.

A two-dimensional magnetic recording (TDMR) disk drive has a gas-bearing slider that includes first and second sensors with a first cross-track spacing electrically coupled to a first magnetic shield, and third and fourth sensors with a different cross-track spacing electrically coupled to a second magnetic shield. The different spacings results in the first and third sensors and the second and fourth sensors having a cross-track spacing to accommodate for the effect of head skew. Each sensor is connected to an associated amplifier by a suspension trace and a common trace connected to its associated shield. Switching circuitry selects either the first and third amplifiers or the second and fourth amplifiers as the active pair depending on the radial location where the data is to be read. Thus the appropriate pair of sensors are aligned with the data tracks despite the presence of high head skew.

A tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) read sensor having a tabbed AFM layer and an extended pinned layer and methods for making the same are provided. The TMR read sensor has an AFM layer recessed from the air bearing surface, providing a reduced shield-to-shield distance.