Patent ID: 7533456

Claim:
A fabrication process for a magneto-resistive effect device having a CPP (current perpendicular to plane) structure comprising a nonmagnetic spacer layer, and a fixed magnetized layer and a free layer stacked one upon another with said nonmagnetic spacer layer sandwiched between them, with a sense current applied in a stacking direction, characterized in that: said free layer functions such that a magnetization direction changes depending on an external magnetic field, and is made up of a multilayer structure including a first Heusler alloy layer, said fixed magnetization layer takes on a form wherein an inner pin layer and an outer pin layer are stacked one upon another with a nonmagnetic intermediate layer sandwiched between them, and said inner pin layer is made up of a multilayer structure including a second Heusler alloy layer, the process comprising co-sputtering each of said first and second Heusler alloy layers using a split target, wherein said first and second Heusler alloy layers are each a Heusler alloy which has a general composition formula: A 2 BC where A is at least one element selected from the group consisting of Co, Ni, Cu, Rh, Pt, Au, Pd, Ir, Ru, Ag, Zn and Cd; B is at least one element selected from the group consisting of Mn, V, Cr, Fe, Ti, Zr, Nb, Hf, Ta and Ni; and C is at least one element selected from the group consisting of Si, Ga, Ge, Al, Sn, In, Sb, Pb and Zn, and said split target is split into two sub-targets: a first sub-target consisting of A and B and unavoidable impurities, and a second sub-target consisting of C and unavoidable impurities.