Thin-film magnetic head and method of manufacturing same, head gimbal assembly, and hard disk drive

摘要

A read head comprises an MR element, two bias field applying layers, and two conductive layers. The two bias field applying layers are adjacent to both side portions of the MR element, and apply a bias magnetic field to the MR element along the longitudinal direction. The two conductive layers feed a sense current to the MR element, each of the conductive layers being disposed to be adjacent to one of surfaces of each of the bias field applying layers and to overlap one of surfaces of the MR element. The conductive layers are each made of a gold alloy having a resistivity of less than 22 muOmega.cm and a hardness as high as or higher than the hardness of a material used for making the bias field applying layers.