Patent ID: 7800866

Claim:
A current-perpendicular-to-the-plane magnetic sensing element comprising a multilayer film including: a pinned magnetic layer; and a free magnetic layer disposed on the pinned magnetic layer with a nonmagnetic layer therebetween, wherein the nonmagnetic layer is composed of Cu and has a face-centered cubic lattice crystal structure in which the {111} planes are oriented in a direction parallel to the surfaces of the layer; at least one of the pinned magnetic layer and the free magnetic layer includes a Co 2 Mn(Ge 1-x Sn x ) alloy layer, the subscript x satisfying the range of 0.2≦x≦0.8; and the Co 2 Mn(Ge 1-x Sn x ) alloy layer has a body-centered cubic lattice crystal structure in which the {110} planes are oriented in a direction parallel to the surfaces of the layer.