Contact magnetoresistive head for perpendicular magnetic recording

Contact-type magnetoresistive (MR) inductive head designs and recording characteristics have been discussed in perpendicular magnetic recording. The shielded-type MR head offered a high D-50 of 100-135 kFRPI, and the unshielded MR head had the largest output in a low density region. However when the recorded bit length became shorter than the shield-to-shield spacing, the shield had little effect and the output of the shielded head was no longer almost equal to that of the unshielded MR head. In result, the shielded-type and even unshielded-type MR heads have good high density recording characteristics in the head-to-medium contact state. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.