Lead-defined and shaped magnetic sensor

A magnetic recording transducer, useful in a magnetic data storage device, having a read element with improved magnetic stability and a narrow track width is described. An MR stripe according to the invention has a magnetic-stability inducing (MSI) shape selected from an essentially trapezoidal shape, an essentially hexagonal shape, an essentially race-track shape, and an essentially half race track shape. These MSI shapes are oriented in a plane perpendicular to the air-bearing surface (ABS). The MSI shapes are used to encourage the formation of a single magnetic domain state with magnetization direction parallel to the ABS in the absence of a magnetic bias. In one embodiment according to the invention the sensor structure is overlaid on the sides of the top surface with layers of electrically conductive material (overlaid leads) to define an approximately rectangular active region of the larger MSI shape. A sensor structure according to the invention with overlaid leads will have a narrower track width with improved magnetic stability than a sensor which has a comparable volume of magnetoresistive material in a rectangular MR stripe. In another embodiment of the invention the sensor structure has edge-butt leads that make contact at the outer edges of the sensor without substantially overlaying the top surface.