Patent ID: 6853521

Claim:
An exchange coupling film comprising a seed layer, an antiferromagnetic layer and a ferromagnetic layer sequentially laminated from bottom to top, a magnetization direction of the ferromagnetic layer being aligned in a given direction by generating an exchange coupling magnetic field at an interface between the antiferromagnetic layer and ferromagnetic layer, wherein the seed layer has at least a crystalline phase and comprises Cr, and at least a direction of a crystal face in one region of the seed layer is oriented in a different direction from a crystal face in a different region from said one region, and diffraction spots corresponding to reciprocal lattice points representing equivalent crystal faces are seen in electron diffraction patterns measured at said one region and another region, a shift of an inclined angle of each virtual line from a line normal to a layer surface obtained by connecting each diffraction spot and an origin of an electron beam is within an angle of zero to 45 degree, and one of crystal axes in the particular crystal face and at least a part of equivalent crystal axes are oriented in different directions with each other.