Patent ID: 8331063

Claim:
A magnetoresistive effect element (MR element) that is a giant magnetoresistive effect element in a current perpendicular to plane (CPP-GMR) structure, comprising: a first ferromagnetic layer; a spacer layer that is epitaxially formed on the first ferromagnetic layer; a second ferromagnetic layer that is located on the spacer layer, and that is laminated with the first ferromagnetic layer to sandwich the spacer layer, wherein a sense current flows along a lamination direction of the first and second ferromagnetic layers, angle of magnetization directions of the first ferromagnetic layer and the second ferromagnetic layer relatively change due to an externally applied magnetic field, the first ferromagnetic layer and the spacer layer are formed in a (001) orientation, a NiFeN orientation under layer having a (001) orientation is formed below the first ferromagnetic layer, the first ferromagnetic layer is epitaxially formed on the NiFeN orientation under layer, and the orientation under layer, the first ferromagnetic layer and the spacer layer are adjacently arranged in a bottom-up order.