a first step in the fabrication of a patterned magnetic element 10 illustrated in fig1 is a fully patterned magnetic element structure 10 the structure includes a substrate 12 a first electrode multilayer stack 14 a spacer layer 16 including oxidized aluminum and a second electrode multilayer stack 18 it should be understood that spacer layer 16 is formed dependent upon the type of magnetic element being fabricated more particularly in a mtj structure spacer layer 16 is formed of a dielectric material and in a spin valve structure spacer layer 16 is formed of a conductive material first electrode multilayer stack 14 and second electrode multilayer stack 18 include ferromagnetic layers first electrode layers 14 are formed on a base metal layer 13 which is formed on substrate 12 base metal layer 13 is disclosed as composed of a single metal material or layer or a stack of more than one metal material or layer first electrode layer 14 includes a first seed layer 20 deposited on base metal layer 13 a template layer 22 a layer of antiferromagnetic pinning material 24 and a fixed ferromagnetic layer 26 formed on and exchange coupled with the underlying antiferromagnetic pinning layer 24 it should be understood that anticipated by this disclosure is a pseudo spin valve structure that would not include the antiferromagnetic pinning layer in this instance the pseudo spin valve structure would.