Patent ID: 7359148

Claim:
A thin film magnetic head having a gap layer comprising: a NiPRe alloy having compositional ratios within the range enclosed in a NiPRe ternary diagram by: a linear boundary line A (including the boundary line A) joining: a point a where (Ni:P:Re)=(84 percent by mass:16 percent by mass:0 percent by mass) and a point b where (Ni:P:Re)=(72 percent by mass:0 percent by mass:28 percent by mass); a linear boundary line B (including the boundary line B) representing a compositional ratio of Re that is 2 percent by mass; a linear boundary line C (including the boundary line C) representing a compositional ratio of Re that is 46 percent by mass; a linear boundary line D (including the boundary line D) representing a compositional ratio of P that is 4 percent by mass; and a linear boundary line E (including the boundary line E) representing a compositional ratio of P that is 18 percent by mass.