Patent ID: 7603763

Claim:
A method for manufacturing a magnetoresistive multilayer film, comprising laminating an antiferromagnetic layer, a pinned-magnetization layer, a nonmagnetic spacer layer and a free-magnetization layer in this order on a substrate; wherein the antiferromagnetic layer is deposited by a sputtering process as a gas mixture of argon and another gas of larger atomic number than argon is used; the gas of larger atomic number than argon is krypton or xenon; a flow rate of the gas of larger atomic number is 10 percent or more relative to that of argon; the pinned-magnetization layer is the layer where direction of magnetization is pinned by coupling with the antiferromagnetic layer, and the free-magnetization layer is the layer where direction of magnetization is free; and the magnetoresistive multilayer film is a tunnel type.