| 摘要 |
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an element and a thin film magnetic head in which an excellent exchange anisotropic magnetic field can be applied on a fixed magnetic layer, excellent linear responsiveness is obtained, Barkhausen noise can be suppressed and an excellent change rate of resistance is obtained with little branched current of a sensing current. SOLUTION: This element is equipped with a coercive force enhancing layer consisting of a first antiferromagnetic material, a fixed magnetic layer having the coercive force enhanced by the coercive force enhancing layer 1 and having a fixed magnetization direction, and a free magnetic layer 4 having the magnetization direction aligned along the direction crossing with the magnetization direction of the fixed magnetic layer 2. A sensing current is applied in the direction crossing with the fixed magnetization direction of the fixed magnetic layer 2, and changes in the electric resistance are detected by the relation of the angle made by the magnetization in the fixed magnetic layer 2 and in the free magnetic layer 4. The fixed magnetic layer 2 is formed as divided by a nonmagnetic intermediate layer 10 into two layers of a first sub-fixed-magnetic-layer 11 near the coercive force enhancing layer 1 and a second sub-fixed-magnetic-layer 12 near the nonmagnetic conductive layer 3.
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