Patent ID: 8345390

Claim:
A magnetoresistive effect (MR) element in a current perpendicular to plane type (CPP-type) structure comprising: a spacer layer; and a first ferromagnetic layer and a second ferromagnetic layer laminated to each other to sandwich the spacer layer, and a sense current flows in the laminated direction, wherein the spacer layer comprises a first nonmagnetic metal layer and a second nonmagnetic metal layer that both are made of a nonmagnetic metal material, and a semiconductor oxide layer formed between the first nonmagnetic metal layer and the second nonmagnetic metal layer, the semiconductor oxide layer is made of zinc oxide (ZnO), one of the first nonmagnetic metal layer and the second nonmagnetic metal layer is made of Cu, and the other of the first nonmagnetic metal layer and the second nonmagnetic metal layer is substantially made of Zn, at least one of the first ferromagnetic layer and the second ferromagnetic layer contains an element selected from the group of nitrogen (N), carbon (C), and oxygen (O), and electric conductivity of the spacer layer is in a range of 133-432 S/cm.