Patent ID: 8837083

Claim:
A magnetic head for perpendicular magnetic recording, comprising: a medium facing surface facing a recording medium; a coil producing a magnetic field that corresponds to data to be written on the recording medium, a main pole having an end face located in the medium facing surface, the main pole allowing a magnetic flux that corresponds to the magnetic field produced by the coil to pass, and producing a write magnetic field for writing the data on the recording medium by means of a perpendicular magnetic recording system; a return path section formed of a magnetic material, the return path section allowing a portion of a magnetic flux that has been produced from the end face of the main pole and has magnetized a portion of the recording medium to flow back to the main pole, a heater located away from the medium facing surface and heating the main pole, and a metal portion formed of a metal material, the metal portion being isolated from the return path section and disposed such that the heater is interposed between the main pole and the metal portion, wherein the return path section has one or more contact surfaces in contact with the main pole, the one or more contact surfaces are located away from the medium facing surface, the metal portion is located farther from the medium facing surface than are the one or more contact surfaces, the main pole and the metal portion define therebetween a receiving space for receiving at least part of the heater, and the at least part of the heater is received in the receiving space.