Abstract: A sputtering system is provided with a substrate and a sputtering material layer that are located in a sputtering chamber. The sputtering material layer has a sputtering surface where atoms of the material are sputtered and the substrate has a forming surface with a site where atoms of the sputtered material are to be formed. The sputtering material layer has a sputtering center which is located at a center of the atoms to be sputtered and the aforementioned site has a periphery with a forming center at a center of the periphery. The sputtering center is offset from the forming center so that shadowing at outer extremities of photoresist masks near the periphery of the substrate is minimized.

Abstract: A sputtering system is provided with a substrate and a sputtering material layer that are located in a sputtering chamber. The sputtering material layer has a sputtering surface where atoms of the material are sputtered and the substrate has a forming surface with a site where atoms of the sputtered material are to be formed. The sputtering material layer has a sputtering center which is located at a center of the atoms to be sputtered and the aforementioned site has a periphery with a forming center at a center of the periphery. The sputtering center is offset from the forming center so that shadowing at outer extremities of photoresist masks near the periphery of the substrate is minimized.

Abstract: A free layer for a spin valve sensor includes a cobalt iron (CoFe) film which has an easy axis oriented perpendicular to an air bearing surface (ABS) of a read head and a nickel iron (NiFe) film which has an easy axis oriented parallel to the ABS and parallel to the major planes of the thin film layers. In a further embodiment the free layer is annealed at a high temperature in the presence of a field which is oriented perpendicular to the ABS.

Abstract: A free layer for a spin valve sensor includes a cobalt iron (CoFe) film which has an easy axis oriented perpendicular to an air bearing surface (ABS) of a read head and a nickel iron (NiFe) film which has an easy axis oriented parallel to the ABS and parallel to the major planes of the thin film layers. In a further embodiment the free layer is annealed at a high temperature in the presence of a field which is oriented perpendicular to the ABS.

Abstract: A method constructs first and second seed layers of a seed layer structure in-situ for a top spin valve sensor for increasing magnetoresistive coefficient dr/R of the sensor, reducing a ferromagnetic coupling field HFC between pinned and free layers of the sensor and reducing coercivity HC of the free layer. The first layer, which is aluminum oxide (Al2O3), is ion beam sputter deposited on a first shield layer in a sputtering chamber under a specified pressure. The second seed layer, which is nickel oxide based, is deposited on the first seed layer by ion beam sputter deposition without breaking the vacuum of the chamber. The free layer is then directly deposited on the second seed layer followed by formation of the remainder of the layers of the spin valve sensor.

Abstract: A thin film cobalt alloy magnetic recording disk has a metal nitride layer located between the disk substrate and the top surface of the disk to provide texturing of the disk at the head-disk interface. The texturing layer is made up of generally contiguous clusters of aluminum nitride (AlN) with rounded upper surfaces that are formed on top of the substrate and under the conventional Cr underlayer. The AlN texturing layer is formed by sputtering an Al target in the presence of N.sub.2 gas. The subsequently sputter-deposited Cr underlayer, cobalt alloy magnetic layer and protective amorphous carbon overcoat replicate the upper surface of the contiguous AlN clusters, resulting in a textured surface at the head-disk interface. The AlN texturing layer may also be sputter deposited above the magnetic layer in the middle of the protective carbon overcoat.

Abstract: A thin film metal alloy magnetic recording disk has an improved protective overcoat that creates a low level of static friction in a contact start/stop disk drive. The disk has an amorphous carbon overcoat containing a transition liquid metal interlayer (TLMI). The carbon overcoat is formed by depositing an initial amorphous carbon layer to a first thickness, then depositing an interlayer material of a low-melting point metal or metal alloy (such as In or In--Nb) while maintaining the temperature of the disk substrate above the melting point of the interlayer material, and then depositing a top additional layer of amorphous carbon. Because the initial carbon layer presents a nonwetting surface, the interlayer material "balls up" on the carbon and forms discontinuous spheres of the interlayer material. The additional top layer of carbon bonds to the initial carbon layer and to the metal or metal alloy spheres.

Abstract: A magnetoresistive (MR) sensor comprising a layered structure formed on a substrate includes a first and a second thin film layer of magnetic material separated by a thin film layer of non-magnetic metallic material such as Cu, Au, or Ag, with at least one of the layers of ferromagnetic material formed of either cobalt or a cobalt alloy. The magnetization direction of the first ferromagnetic layer, at zero applied field, is set substantially perpendicular to the magnetization direction of the second ferromagnetic layer which is fixed in position. A current flow is produced through the sensor, and the variations in voltage across the MR sensor are sensed due to the changes in resistance produced by rotation of the magnetization in the front layer of ferromagnetic material as a function of the magnetic field being sensed.