Patent ID: 7193821

Claim:
A thin film magnetic head comprising: a magnetoresistive effect film having: a first stacked part including a magnetic sensitive layer of which magnetization direction changes according to a signal magnetic field from a magnetic recording medium and extending so that width in a first direction corresponding to a recording track width direction of said magnetic recording medium is first width, and a second stacked part having a first antiferromagnetic layer and extending so that the width in said first direction is second width larger than said first width, wherein said second width is equal to or larger than width which is three times as large as said first width, and is equal to or less than width which is ten times as large as said first width; and a pair of magnetic domain control films having: a pair of first magnetic domain control parts which are disposed so as to face each other at an interval corresponding to said first width while sandwiching said first stacked part in said first direction and applying a vertical bias magnetic field to said magnetic sensitive layer, and a pair of second magnetic domain control parts which are disposed so as to face each other while sandwiching said second stacked part in said first direction and applying a vertical bias magnetic field to said magnetic sensitive layer.