MAGNETIC REPRODUCTION HEAD AND MAGNETIC DISK MEMORY DEVICE

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a magnetic reproduction head wherein the magnetization direction of a fixed layer is stabilized without having effects on the magnetization direction of a free layer, even when a magnetoresistance effect element is miniaturized. SOLUTION: The lengths from an ABS surfaces to the fixed layer 54 and an antiferromagnetic layer 55 are formed to be longer than the lengths from the ABS surfaces to the cap layer 51, the free layer 52, and a non-magnetic intermediate layer 53, respectively. The fixed layer 54 and the antiferromagnetic layer 55 have shapes extending long in the direction perpendicular to the ABS surface and are connected, at the ends opposite to the end of the ABS surface, with a fixed-layer hard bias layer 57 in a direction perpendicular to the ABS surface. COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT