Patent ID: 7295409

Claim:
A CPP giant magnetoresistive element comprising a multilayer film comprising a pinned magnetic layer, a nonmagnetic layer, and a free magnetic layer disposed in that order, a current flowing in a thickness direction of the multilayer film, wherein the free magnetic layer comprises a NiFeX alloy or NiFeCoX alloy; the nonmagnetic layer comprises Cu and a spin-dependent bulk scattering coefficient β of the NiFeX alloy or NiFeCoX alloy has a positive sign, the spin-dependent bulk scattering coefficient β being a value inherent in a magnetic material, the coefficient satisfying the relationship ρ↓/ρ↑=(1−β)/(1+β), wherein −1≦β≦1, ρ↓ is a resistivity to minority conduction electrons among conduction electrons flowing through the free magnetic layer, and ρ↑ is a resistivity to majority conduction electrons among the conduction electrons flowing through the free magnetic layer.