Patent ID: 7532503

Claim:
A magnetic recording element comprising: a first fixed layer having a first face and a second face opposing each other and having a magnetization direction fixed in a direction penetrating the first face and the second face; a free layer having a third face and a fourth face opposing each other, having anisotropy field having a first value magnitude, having a magnetization easy axis and a magnetization hard axis both extending along the third face or the fourth face, and having a magnetization direction which changes according to a direction of a current flowing through the first face and the fourth face with a magnetic field applied to the free layer in a fixed direction or according to a direction of a magnetic field applied to the free layer with a current flowing through the first face and the fourth face in a fixed direction; a first intermediate layer consisting essentially of nonmagnetic material and provided between the second face and the third face; and a magnetic field generating layer configured to apply a magnetic field having magnitude smaller than the first value to the free layer along the magnetization hard axis.