Patent ID: 7163755

Claim:
A vertical current-type magneto-resistive element, comprising: an intermediate layer; and a pair of magnetic layers sandwiching the intermediate layer; wherein one of the magnetic layers is a free magnetic layer in which magnetization rotation with respect to an external magnetic field is easier than in the other magnetic layer; wherein the free magnetic layer is a multilayer film including at least one non-magnetic layer and magnetic layers sandwiching the non-magnetic layer; an element area, which is defined by the area of the intermediate layer through which current flows perpendicular to the film plane, is not larger than 1000 μm 2 ; the non-magnetic layer has a thickness d in the range of 2.6 nm≦d<10 nm; wherein, when the magnetic layers m are the magnetic layers in the free magnetic layer that are arranged at positions m (with m being an integer of 1 or greater) from the intermediate layer, Mm is an average saturation magnetization of the magnetic layers m and dm is their repective average layer thickness, then the sum of the products Mm×dm for odd m is equal to the sum of the products Mm×dm for even m where each dm equals 1 to 100 nm; and the non-magnetic layer is made at least one selected from the group consisting of Ta, Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Nb, Cr, Mo, W, Al, SiO 2 , SiC, Si 3 N 4 , Al 2 O 3 , AlN, Cr 2 O 3 , Cr 2 N, TiO, TiN, TiC, HfO 2 , HfN, HfC, Ta 2 O 5 , TaN, TaC, BN and B 4 C.