Patent ID: 7626785

Claim:
A thin film magnetic head comprising: a thin film coil for generating a magnetic flux; and a magnetic pole layer extending rearward from a recording-medium-facing surface which faces a recording medium traveling in a medium travel direction, generating a magnetic field for magnetizing the recording medium in a direction orthogonal to a surface of the recording medium on the basis of the magnetic flux generated by the thin film coil, and including a magnetic pole having an exposed surface which is defined by a first edge positioned on an opposite side in the medium travel direction and a second edge positioned in the medium travel direction and which is exposed on the recording-medium-facing surface, wherein the magnetic pole in the magnetic pole layer has a stacking structure in which first and second magnetic pole portions are stacked and adjacent to each other, the first magnetic pole portion is positioned on the opposite side in the medium travel direction, having a relatively low first saturated magnetic flux density, and having a first exposed surface area constructing a part of the exposed surface, the second magnetic pole portion is positioned in the medium travel direction, having a relatively high second saturated magnetic flux density, and having a second exposed surface area constructing another part of the exposed surface, a width of the second edge in the exposed surface is larger than a width of the first edge in the exposed surface, and is equal to or larger than a width of the exposed surface at an arbitrary intermediate position between the first and the second edges, and a height at a center position in the second exposed surface area is larger than a height of the second exposed surface area at an arbitrary peripheral position around the center position.