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Since the spin-valve (SV) effect was first introduced in the beginning of 1990s, the giant/tunneling magnetoresistance (GMR/TMR) SV devices have been extensively used for building blocks of spintronics and magnetic information storage technology. The main purpose of this book is to provide concrete and well-organized core knowledge on SVs covering the general physics and theories elucidating magnetism, exchange bias, and GMR/TMR SV effects, the methodologies how to prepare and to characterize the SV materials, the applications of SV devices including magnetic recording read sensor, magnetic random access memory (MRAM), various spintronics devices, and the electrical and magnetic stability. The broad, deep, and state-of-art technical information provided by this book should help undergraduate/graduate students and the researchers to explore new scientifically challenges being faced in the field of magnetics, spintronics, and biomagnetics research areas.

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