Patent ID: 7381480

Claim:
A magnetic recording element in which information is recorded by supplying to a magnetic material a spin-polarized electron which is spin-polarized, comprising: a fixed layer whose magnetization is substantially fixed, which has a first surface and a second surface, and is essentially made of a ferromagnetic material; a recording layer whose magnetization is reversed by an action of the spin-polarized electron, which has a third surface and a fourth surface, and is essentially made of a ferromagnetic material having a first atomic potential sensed by the majority-spin band electrons and a second atomic potential sensed by the minority-spin band electrons; a spacer layer which is arranged between the fixed layer and the recording layer, is in contact with the second surface and the third surface, and is essentially made of a nonmagnetic material; a cap layer which has a fifth surface and a sixth surface, is essentially made of a metal nonmagnetic material having a third atomic potential, sensed by both the majority-spin band electrons and the minority-spin band electrons, that is less than an intermediate value between the first potential and the second potential, and has a thickness of not more than 3 nm, the fifth surface being in direct contact with the fourth surface; and a reflecting layer which is in direct contact with the sixth surface, is essentially made of a nonmagnetic material having a fourth atomic potential, sensed by both the majority-spin band electrons and the minority-spin band electrons, that is different from the third potential, and has a thickness of not more than 20 nm, wherein the cap layer comprises a member of the group consisting of Cu, Au and Ag; and the reflecting layer comprises a member of the group consisting of Ta, Pt, Ru, Al, W, Ta oxides, Al oxides, Si oxides, Si oxynitrides, Si nitrides, Fe oxides, Mg oxides, Al—Zr oxides, Ge oxides, Cu oxides, GaAlAs, Si, Ge and GaAs.