Larger View

Interface Integrity of multilayer GMR Stack

Fierce competition in the magnetic storage industry has focused on the reduction of device form factors. Disk-drive read heads use thin films whose surfaces - ideally atomically smooth - are exceptionally difficult to analyze. Interface attributes - roughness, composition chemistry, and impurities - are critical to performance. The Imago LEAP^® Microscope enables engineers to better understand film structure, especially at materials interfaces, so film behaviors can be accurately characterized.

Further advances would require techniques to parameterize attributes such as:

• Interface roughness
• Amount and location of contaminants
• Thickness of buried films
• Stack stability
• Nano-oxide layers