Patent ID: 9305573
Filing Date: 2016-04-05
CPC Classification: G11B

Claim Text:
1. A thermally assisted magnetic recording head, comprising: a main core that propagates laser light as propagation light; a near-field light generator that faces a portion of the main core and extends to an air bearing surface, the near-field light generator being coupled to propagation light propagating through the core in a surface plasmon mode so as to generate a surface plasmon, propagating the surface plasmon to an end part facing the air bearing surface, generating near-field light at the end part so as to irradiate the near-field light to a magnetic recording medium; a main magnetic pole layer that is provided in the vicinity of the near-field light generator and of which an end part is positioned on the air bearing surface; a laser diode that generates laser light of wavelength 890 nm to 1,000 nm and enters the laser light into the main core; and a photodiode that is provided on a silicon substrate and measures an intensity of the laser light entered from the laser diode to the main core, wherein the laser diode generates TE polarization laser light and enters the TE polarization laser light from an incident part of the main core into the main core, the main core includes a polarization direction transducer between a part facing the near-field light generator and the incident part, the polarization direction transducer converting the TE polarization laser light into TM polarization laser light that is passed as the propagation light.