Patent ID: 7042810
Filing Date: 2006-05-09
Classification: B82Y,G11B

Abstract:
1. A thermally-assisted magnetic recording head capable of recording information magnetically on a recording medium, comprising: a laser device configured to emit a light to heat the recording medium to reduce a magnetic coercive force thereof; a light absorbing film provided between the laser device and the recording medium, the light absorbing film having an aperture through which the light is applied to the recording medium; a magnetic pole configured to record the information magnetically on the recording medium by applying a recording magnetic field to the recording medium having the reduced coercive force; and an optical light collecting unit configured to asymmetrically converge the light emitted from a light emitting face of the laser device and to direct the converged light into the aperture, the aperture being adapted so that a polarizing direction of the light emitted from the laser device is approximately perpendicular to a direction along a longitudinal extension of recording tracks formed on the recording medium, a width W1 of the aperture taken along the polarizing direction being smaller than a width W2 of the aperture taken approximately perpendicular to the polarizing direction, the width W1 being shorter than ½ of a wavelength at the center of a spectrum of the light emitted from the laser device, and the optical light collecting unit shifting a peak of a distribution of a light intensity of the converged light from a first position to a second position due to the asymmetrical convergence, the second position being closer to the magnetic pole than the first position.