Magnetoresistive element, thin film magnetic head, magnetic head slider, head gimbal assembly, head arm assembly and magnetic disk device

摘要

The invention is devised to provide a magnetoresistive element that is hardly susceptible to harmful influence of unnecessary magnetic fields and noise of heat even when reduction in size is achieved to be adaptable to higher recording density, and therefore that is excellent in operational reliability. The magnetoresistive element includes a stacked structure including, in order: a magnetically pinned layer whose magnetization direction is fixed in a given direction; a non-magnetic layer; a magnetically free layer whose magnetization direction changes according to an external magnetic field; and an antiferromagnetic bias layer exchange-coupled with the magnetically free layer. The exchange-coupling magnetic field between the magnetically free layer and the antiferromagnetic bias layer is smaller than a saturation magnetic field of the magnetically free layer.