Abstract: An antimicrobial coating is formed from a biocompatible flexible polymer having incorporated therein an active material having a reducible form of silver, where at least a portion of the active material is exposed at the surface of the polymer. The coating can be applied to the surface of a catheter to inhibit bacterial growth and biofilm formation.

Abstract: In a MR head of the non-shunt bias type, one or more extremely thin coatings of a sacrificial conductive material are applied on the magnetoresistive strip, each such coating being so thin that it has extremely high sheet resistance in comparison to the sheet resistance of the MR strip. Because the sacrificial coating(s) is (are) in direct contact with the MR strip, the requirement for electrical conductivity between the coating(s) and the MR strip is (are) met; and because the sacrificial coating(s) is (are) of high resistivity, very little sense current is sapped away from the MR strip by the sacrificial coating(s), with attendantly very little decrease in the sensitivity of the head. By sandwiching the MR strip between equi-thick sacrificial coatings, whatever leakage currents flow through the high resistivity sacrificial coatings are productive of equal and opposite biasing effects vis-a-vis the MR strip, i.e.

Abstract: A 3,000-10,000 angstrom thick cobalt-platinum (CoPt) magnetic film is deposited onto a chromium (Cr) or tungsten (W) overlayer on a substrate, or is deposited directly onto the substrate. The deposited film has an appreciable component of its C-axis, which is parallel to the [00.2] direction, lying in the plane of the film. The component of the C-axis lies in the plane of the film throughout the entire thickness of the CoPt film, and the resultant magnetic film has a coercivity from 1,300-2,000 oersteds, depending upon which, if any, overlayer is included.The method for producing the magnetic film of the invention teaches sputtering the overlayer onto a substrate maintained approximately at room temperature in an atmosphere of inert gas. After ajdusting the pressure of the gas and controlling the distance between the CoPt sputtering target and the substrate, CoPt is sputtered such that the depositing Co and Pt atoms are thermalized while traversing the distance between the target and the substrate.