Barkhausen Noise in Thin-Film Recording Heads

Barkhausen noise in thin-film heads was studied by exciting the heads with an external magnetic field and with a head coil generated field. Observed pulses show an exponential growth and decay, resulting in a second order wall energy versus displacement model. Analytical expressions are given for the observed pulse shapes. Most pulses are essentially associated with unstable regions around attractive interaction sites where a wall in equilibrium cannot exist. A method is presented which locates the position of a wall jump in P1or P2. It can also discriminate jumps occurring close to the pole faces from those farther up the yoke. © 1990 IEEE