Recording studies of sub-micron write heads by focused ion beam trimming

In this paper we discuss the performances of our current inductive write heads which have been processed using conventional lithography, then trimmed at the ABS using focused ion beam to submicron dimensions for very narrow track applications. We demonstrate that for pole-tips of submicron geometries, we are able to achieve adequate write performances. For a 10 turn FIB trimmed head of 0.85 micron final pole width, we achieve an erase width of 0.9 microns, 55% rolloff density at 5500 fc/mm, write threshold of 30 mA, and hard transition shift of 5 nm at write currents of 70 mA.