Patent ID: 7463457

Claim:
A CPP giant magnetoresistive element comprising a multilayer film comprising a pinned magnetic layer, a nonmagnetic layer, and a free magnetic layer disposed in that order, a current flowing in a thickness direction of the multilayer film, wherein the pinned magnetic layer comprises a first pinned magnetic sublayer and a second pinned magnetic sublayer disposed on the first pinned magnetic sublayer with a nonmagnetic intermediate sublayer therebetween, and at least the second pinned magnetic sublayer comprises a NiFeX alloy or NiFeCoX alloy, and wherein the nonmagnetic layer comprises Cu and a spin-dependent bulk scattering coefficient β of the NiFeX alloy or NiFeCoX alloy has a positive sign, the spin-dependent bulk scattering coefficient β being a value inherent in a magnetic material, the coefficient satisfying the relationship ρ↓/ρ↑=(1+β)/(1−β), wherein −1≦β≦1, ρ↓ is a resistivity to minority conduction electrons among conduction electrons flowing through the pinned magnetic layer, and ρ↑ is a resistivity to majority conduction electrons among the conduction electrons flowing through the pinned magnetic layer.