Patent ID: 7573686

Claim:
A thin-film magnetic head comprising: a medium facing surface that faces toward a recording medium; and a magnetoresistive element for detecting a signal magnetic field sent from the recording medium, the magnetoresistive element incorporating: a tunnel barrier layer having two surfaces facing toward opposite directions; a free layer disposed adjacent to one of the surfaces of the tunnel barrier layer and having a direction of magnetization that changes in response to the signal magnetic field; and a pinned layer disposed adjacent to the other of the surfaces of the tunnel barrier layer and having a fixed direction of magnetization, wherein: the tunnel barrier layer is made of a material containing zinc oxide; the tunnel barrier layer has a thickness that falls within a range of 1.3 to 2 nm inclusive; and the magnetoresistive element has a resistance-area product that falls within a range of 0.3 to 2.0 Ω-μm 2 inclusive.