Patent ID: 7898909

Claim:
A thermally assisted magnetic head, comprising: a slider having a medium-facing surface; and a surface-emitting semiconductor laser, wherein the slider has: a slider substrate on which part of the medium-facing surface is formed; and a magnetic head portion, on which another part of the medium-facing surface is formed, and which has a first surface in contact with a head stacking surface of the slider substrate, a second surface opposite the first surface, and a third surface opposite the medium-facing surface, the magnetic head portion comprises: a main magnetic pole that generates a write magnetic field from an end face on the side of the medium-facing surface; an optical waveguide core, extending along the first surface, and having a first light exit surface at the medium-facing surface and a second light exit surface at the third surface; a first diffraction grating, which is provided in the optical waveguide core or further towards the second surface than the optical waveguide core, and the refractive index of which changes periodically in a direction in which the optical waveguide core extends; and a light reflective section provided further toward the first surface than the optical waveguide core, wherein the surface-emitting semiconductor laser is provided opposing the second surface in such a manner that emission light therefrom is incident onto the first diffraction grating and the light reflective section, the first diffraction grating causes part of emission light from the surface-emitting semiconductor laser to be optically coupled to the optical waveguide core, and the light reflective section reflects the emission light from the surface-emitting semiconductor laser which passes through the optical waveguide core in a direction which intersects the direction in which the optical waveguide core extends such that the emission light from the surface-emitting semiconductor laser which passes through the optical waveguide core becomes incident on the optical waveguide core.