System and method for pre-stressing a read head for improving performance thereof

The present invention relates to magnetoresistive heads, and more particularly, this invention relates to applying a voltage pulse for normalizing a magnetic condition of a read head. A system, method and computer program product provide an annealing process for setting a magnetization condition of a read head. An amount of heat for stabilizing magnetization condition of a read head is calculated. A width and amplitude of a voltage pulse that generates the calculated amount of heat in the read head are calculated. A voltage pulse of the calculated width and amplitude is applied to the read head for generating Joule heating in the read head. The width of the voltage pulse is less than one second.