Patent ID: 7372675

Claim:
A magnetoresistive element comprising: a tunnel barrier layer having two surfaces that face 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 an external magnetic field; and a pinned layer that is a ferromagnetic layer disposed adjacent to the other of the surfaces of the tunnel barrier layer and having a fixed direction of magnetization, wherein: the free layer incorporates: a first soft magnetic layer disposed adjacent to the one of the surfaces of the tunnel barrier layer; a high polarization layer disposed such that the first soft magnetic layer is sandwiched between the tunnel barrier layer and the high polarization layer; and a second soft magnetic layer disposed such that the high polarization layer is sandwiched between the first and second soft magnetic layers; the high polarization layer is a ferromagnetic layer having a spin polarization higher than that of each of the first and second soft magnetic layers; and each of the first and second soft magnetic layers is a ferromagnetic layer having a coercive force lower than that of the high polarization layer.