A method and system for providing a magnetoresistive sensor and a read head that
includes the magnetoresistive sensor is disclosed. The method and system include
providing a pinned layer, a nonmagnetic spacer layer and a composite sensor layer.
The pinned layer has a first magnetization that is pinned in a particular direction.
The nonmagnetic spacer layer resides between the composite sensor layer and the
pinned layer. The composite sensor layer includes a CoFe layer and a composite
layer adjacent to the CoFe layer. The composite layer includes CoFe and at least
one of Ta, Hf, Ti, Nb, Zr, Au, Ag, Cu, B, C, O2, H2 and N2.
