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A spin valve contains a magnetically soft free ferromagnet, a thin nonmagnetic metallic spacer and a reference ferromagnet pinned by exchange bias from an antiferromagnet. The recording track's stray field rotates or reverses the free-layer moment while the reference remains approximately fixed. Spin-dependent scattering makes the resistance lower for parallel moments and higher for antiparallel moments. A sense current converts this into a voltage signal, or a fixed voltage into a current signal.

A useful angular approximation is $R(\theta )=R_P+(R_{AP}-R_P)(1-\cos \theta )/2$. Biasing the equilibrium moments near $90^{\circ }$ gives an approximately linear response to small track fields. Pinning stability, magnetic shielding and the sensor's spatial extent matter for reading adjacent narrow bits.^[ref]