Patent ID: 7573675

Claim:
A thin film magnetic head having a medium-facing surface, comprising: a pair of magnetic shield layers facing each other, each magnetic shield layer having a first end face forming the medium-facing surface and a second end face located opposite to the first end face; a magnetoresistive effect element located between the pair of magnetic shield layers and located on the first end face side; a bias-applying layer located between the pair of magnetic shield layers and arranged to apply a bias magnetic field to the magnetoresistive effect element; and a hard magnetic layer located between the pair of magnetic shield layers and located closer to the second end face side than the magnetoresistive effect element, wherein a length of the hard magnetic layer in a direction perpendicular to the first end face is larger than ⅓ and smaller than ½ of a length of the magnetic shield layers in the direction perpendicular to the first end face.