Patent ID: 8144437

Claim:
A magnetoresistive effect element (MR element) in a current perpendicular to plane (CPP) structure comprising: a magnetoresistive effect part (MR part), and a first shield layer and a second shield layer formed to sandwich the MR part from above and below, in which a sense current is applied in a lamination direction of the MR part, wherein the MR part has a non-magnetic intermediate layer, a first ferromagnetic layer functioning as a free layer and a second ferromagnetic layer functioning as a free layer, the first and second ferromagnetic layers being layered to sandwich the non-magnetic intermediate layer, an orthogonalizing bias function part is formed at a rear part of the MR part influencing a substantial orthogonalizing function of the first and second ferromagnetic layers in respective magnetization directions thereof, non-magnetic metal layers are formed to abut both ends of the MR part in a width direction and are separated from both ends of the MR part by respective insulation layers, each of the non-magnetic metal layers is in a two-layer structure configured with a first non-magnetic metal layer positioned at a lower side as a lower layer and a second non-metal layer positioned at an upper side as an upper layer, and a relationship R 2 <R 1 is met, where R 1 is a milling rate for the first non-magnetic metal layer that is the lower layer, and R 2 is another milling rate for the second non-magnetic metal layer that is the upper layer.