A structure for use in a magnetic recording and/or readback head comprises at least first and second layers of silicon-aluminium-iron (SiAlFe), known as sendust. In one embodiment the multilayered magnetic structure (50) includes a seed layer (53) of a first sendust alloy and a bulk layer (55) of a second sendust alloy overlying the seed layer, providing greatly improved anisotropic field and soft magnetic characteristics for the structure over a relatively wide range of compositions for the sendust material used for the bulk layer. The seed layer can be a single sendust layer or, alternatively, can be a multilayered structure (63) including layers of a gas-doped sendust material (67) and layers of non-doped sendust material (69) formed in an alternating sequence. The dopant gas is a gas such as nitrogen, oxygen or air, for example. Because of the hardness exhibited by sendust films, the described multilayered sendust films are excellent candidates for magnetic shields and inductive pole tips exposed at the air bearing surface of a transducer in a magnetic storage device.

A method of doping a Group III-V compound semiconductor with an impurity, wherein after an undoped film of SiOx and a film for preventing the diffusion of Group V atoms (e.g., an SiN film) are formed in this order on a crystal of Group III-V compound semiconductor, the sample is subjected to at least one heat treatment to cause silicon in the SiOx film to diffuse into the Group III-V compound semiconductor, thereby forming a doped layer. Using this doped layer forming method, field-effect transistors, diodes, resistive layers, two-dimensional electron gas or one-dimensional quantum wires, zero-dimensional quantum boxes, electron wave interference devices, etc. are fabricated.

A method of doping a Group III-V compound semiconductor with an impurity, wherein after an undoped film of SiOx and a film for preventing the diffusion of Group V atoms (e.g., an SiN film) are formed in this order on a crystal of Group III-V compound semiconductor, the sample is subjected to at least one heat treatment to cause silicon in the SiOx film to diffuse into the Group III-V compound semiconductor, thereby forming a doped layer. Using this doped layer forming method, field-effect transistors, diodes, resistive layers, two-dimensional electron gas or one-dimensional quantum wires, zero-dimensional quantum boxes, electron wave interference devices, etc. are fabricated.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a magnetoresistance effect element which has a film with a spin valve structure or an artificial lattice film having good soft magnetic characteristics, and which can be applied to a high-sensitivity magnetic head. The present invention provides a magnetoresistance effect element including a stacked film formed on a substrate by sequentially stacking a ferromagnetic film containing as its main constituents at least one elements selected from the group consisting of Co, Fe, and Ni, a nonmagnetic film, and the ferromagnetic film, wherein the two ferromagnetic films are not coupled with each other, and the closest packed plane of each ferromagnetic film is oriented in a direction perpendicular to the film surface.

A low resistance conductive pigment containing indium oxide crystal grains each including a partial amount of Sn. The amount of Sn ranges from about 1 to about 15 mol % relative to the total amount of Sn and In in each of the indium oxide crystal grains. The conductive pigment further includes a specified surface acidity and a specified volume resistivity. The conductive pigment exhibits improved visibility and averages a primary particle size of up to 0.2 mu m,. This allows for the manufacture of superior transparent conductive films which can be useful, inter alia, as a transparent electrode in liquid crystal displays and heating elements having transparent surfaces. In one embodiment, ITO crystals undergo an oxygen extraction treatment, while in another embodiment, surface acidity, is increased by a surface modification treatment. The methods of forming conductive pigments, conductive film forming compositions and conductive resin forming compositions are also disclosed.

[OBJECT] An object of the present invention is to reduce resistance and improve color tone of a conductive pigment comprising indium oxide containing tin, having an Sn content within a range of from 1 to 15 mol% relative to the total amount of In + Sn. [CONSTRUCTION] (1) Immersing an ITO pigment in alcohol, ketone, ester or amine and heat-treating same at a temperature of up to 500 DEG C under a reduced pressure or in an inert gas, or heat-treating same at a temperature of up to 500 DEG C in an inert gas containing H2, NH3 or CO in an amount of 0.5 to 20 vol.% to reach a surface acidity of from 8 x 10<-><7> to 1 x 10<-><5> mol/m<2> permits achievement of a volume resistivity (50 kg/cm<2> green compact) of under 2 x 10<0> and at least 2 x 10<-><2> OMEGA .cm. (2) Heat-treating an ITO pigment or a precursor hydroxide thereof at 300 to 1,150 DEG C in an inert gas or under a reduced pressure, and introducing an oxygen vacancy of 0.05 to 0.35 mol into crystal grains permits achievement of a bluish pigment excellent in visibility having a color tone comprising an x-value of from 0.265 to 0.300 and a y-value of from 0.290 to 0.315 on the xy chromaticity scale and a volume resistivity of from 8 x 10<-><1> to 1 x 10<-><2> OMEGA .cm. (3) By conducting sequentially the steps (2) and (1) described above, or heat-treating same at 300 to 1,150 DEG C in an inert gas containing H2, NH3 or CO in an amount of up to 20 vol.%, there is available a low-resistance ITO pigment, comparable with a sputtering film, having a volume resistivity of from 8 x 10<-><2> to 9 x 10<-><5> OMEGA .cm, in addition to the bluish color tone as described above. [EFFECTS] When a pigment has an average primary particle size of up to 0.2 mu m it is possible to form a transparent conductive film which is useful as a transparent electrode and a heating element having a transparent surface.

The present invention relates to a microactuator that can be produced by utilizing the IC fabrication processes such as etching, lithography or the like and that can be used as a micropositioner in a multi probe head for scanning probe microscopy and a pickup head for recording and reproducing equipment. The microactuator comprises a plurality of electrodes arranged around the circumference of a circle, a ring-like displacement plate located inside said electrodes, beams which support said displacement plate elastically at one ends and at the same time are fixed at the other ends to a point located towards the inside of said displacement plate on a substrate and a voltage supply means to apply voltages to said electrodes in order for said electrodes to attract said displacement plate electrostatically. An extremely small, long life and high reliability microactuator that is excellent in mass-producibility and capable of high precision positioning can be realized.

The present invention relates to semiconductor devices with ohmic contact to ZnSe-based layers and lasers derived therefrom wherein BeTe is used in a graded band gap layer. Preferably, an ohmic contact layer of BeTe-containing graded composition is used which consists essentially of BexZn1-xTexSe1-x wherein x is within the range of 0 and 1 selected so as to provide substantial lattice matching to the lattice structure c the substrate. Specifically, BexZn1-xTexSe1-x graded gap semiconductor layers are provided for application as ohmic contacts to p-type ZnSe, ZnSxSe1-x, Zn1-xCdxS, Zn1-xCdxSySe1-y, Zn1-xMgxSySe1-y (wherein x and y are a number selected from 0 to 1) and other II-VI compound semiconductors used in lasers grown on GaAs substrates. Due to the close lattice match to GaAs substrate, graded (BeTe)x (ZnSe)1-x contact allow for the entire device structure to be grown within the pseudomorphic limit.