Patent ID: 8792207

Claim:
A magnetic head for perpendicular magnetic recording, comprising: a medium facing surface configured to face 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; and a return path section made of a magnetic material, wherein the return path section includes: a first coil surrounding portion located on a front side in a direction of travel of the recording medium relative to the main pole and provided for forming a first coil receiving space; and a first connecting portion located away from the medium facing surface and connecting the main pole and the first coil surrounding portion to each other, the first coil surrounding portion has a first end face located in the medium facing surface and lying on the front side in the direction of travel of the recording medium relative to the end face of the main pole, the first connecting portion has a contact surface in contact with the main pole, the first coil receiving space is a space defined by a first virtual plane, a second virtual plane and the first coil surrounding portion, the first virtual plane intersecting the contact surface and being parallel to the medium facing surface, the second virtual plane including the contact surface and being perpendicular to the direction of travel of the recording medium, the coil includes a first portion received in the first coil receiving space, no portion of the coil other than the first portion is present in a region that is located on the front side in the direction of travel of the recording medium relative to the second virtual plane and sandwiched between the first virtual plane and the medium facing surface, and the first end face has a width in a track width direction that is smaller than a maximum width of the first coil receiving space in the track width direction.