Patent ID: 8395971

Claim:
A heat-assisted magnetic recording head comprising a slider, an edge-emitting laser diode fixed to the slider, and an external mirror provided outside the slider, the slider comprising: a medium facing surface that faces a recording medium; a magnetic pole that has an end face located in the medium facing surface, for producing a recording magnetic field for recording data on the recording medium; a waveguide that allows light to propagate therethrough; a near-field light generating element having a near-field light generating part located in the medium facing surface, a surface plasmon being excited based on the light propagating through the waveguide, the surface plasmon propagating to the near-field light generating part, the near-field light generating part generating near-field light based on the surface plasmon; and a substrate on which the magnetic pole, the near-field light generating element and the waveguide are stacked, wherein: the substrate has a top surface facing toward the magnetic pole, the near-field light generating element and the waveguide; the slider has a top surface that lies above the top surface of the substrate; the near-field light generating element and the waveguide are disposed farther from the top surface of the substrate than is the magnetic pole; the laser diode includes: an active layer; an emitting end face that lies at an end in a direction parallel to a plane of the active layer and includes an emission part for emitting laser light; and a bottom surface that lies at an end in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the active layer, the laser diode being arranged so that the bottom surface faces the top surface of the slider; and the external mirror reflects the laser light emitted from the emission part toward the waveguide.