Patent ID: 7663839

Claim:
A magnetic head for perpendicular magnetic recording comprising: a medium facing surface that faces toward a recording medium; a coil for generating a magnetic field corresponding to data to be written on the recording medium; a pole layer having an end face located in the medium facing surface, allowing a magnetic flux corresponding to the field generated by the coil to pass therethrough, and generating a write magnetic field for writing the data on the recording medium through the use of a perpendicular magnetic recording system; a shield layer having an end face located in the medium facing surface and having a portion that is away from the medium facing surface and coupled to the pole layer; a gap layer made of a nonmagnetic material and disposed between the pole layer and the shield layer; an encasing layer made of a nonmagnetic material and having a groove that opens in a top surface thereof; a nonmagnetic metal layer made of a nonmagnetic metal material, disposed on the top surface of the encasing layer, the nonmagnetic metal layer having a penetrating opening, the penetrating opening being through the nonmagnetic metal layer and contiguous to the groove, so that the nonmagnetic metal layer does not extend into the groove; and a substrate on which the encasing layer, the nonmagnetic metal layer, the pole layer, the gap layer, the coil and the shield layer are stacked, wherein: the pole layer has a portion that is placed in the groove of the encasing layer and in the opening of the nonmagnetic metal layer; in the medium facing surface, the end face of the shield layer is located forward of the end face of the pole layer along a direction of travel of the recording medium with a specific space created by a thickness of the gap layer; the pole layer incorporates: a first portion having the end face located in the medium facing surface; and a second portion that is located farther from the medium facing surface than the first portion and has a thickness greater than that of the first portion; a surface of the first portion farther from the substrate is located closer to the substrate than a surface of the second portion farther from the substrate; the second portion has a front end face that couples the surface of the first portion farther from the substrate to the surface of the second portion farther from the substrate; the end face of the pole layer located in the medium facing surface has a first side close to the substrate, and a second side located opposite to the first side, the second side defining a track width; and the shield layer incorporates a portion that is sandwiched between the front end face and the medium facing surface and that is located in a region closer to the substrate than the surface of the second portion farther from the substrate.