Effect of ion-beam etching damage in Fe-Co tapered main pole

Effect of ion-beam etching damage in Fe-Co films was estimated and magnetic calculation of the planar head using tapered main pole (MP) including the etching damage was performed. The etching test on the Fe-Co films, whose thickness corresponds to half of the trackwidth for several Tbits/in.(2), showed decrease in saturation magnetic flux density (B(s)) and increase in coercivity with a 250 eV ion beam. The magnetic calculation showed relatively large decrease in head field and head field gradient as Bs of the damaged region decreases from 2.4 T. Damage control in the MP fabrication is one of the important issues for Tbits/in.(2)-era write heads. (c) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3070584]