Patent ID: 7782575

Claim:
A magnetoresistive element comprising: a free layer having a direction of magnetization that changes in response to an external magnetic field; a pinned layer having a fixed direction of magnetization; and a spacer layer disposed between the free layer and the pinned layer, wherein a current for detecting magnetic signals is fed in a direction intersecting a plane of each of the foregoing layers, and wherein: the spacer layer includes: first and second nonmagnetic metal layers each of which is made of Cu; and a semiconductor layer that is made of a material containing zinc oxide which is an oxide semiconductor, the semiconductor layer being disposed between the first nonmagnetic metal layer and the second nonmagnetic metal layer; the magnetoresistive element has a resistance-area product within a range of 0.1 to 0.3 Ω·μm 2 ; and the spacer layer has a conductivity within a range of 133 to 432 S/cm.