Patent ID: 8900466

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a near-field light generator including a waveguide and a plasmon generator, wherein the waveguide includes a core through which light propagates, and a cladding provided around the core, the core has a bottom surface, a top surface opposite to the bottom surface, and two side surfaces connecting the top and bottom surfaces to each other, the cladding includes a first cladding layer in contact with the bottom surface of the core, a second cladding layer in contact with the two side surfaces of the core, and a third cladding layer in contact with the top surface of the core, the plasmon generator is disposed above the top surface of the core and has a plasmon exciting part configured to excite a surface plasmon through coupling with evanescent light generated from the top surface of the core, and a front end face that generates near-field light based on the surface plasmon, the method of manufacturing the near-field light generator comprising: a step of forming the first cladding layer; a step of forming a structure on the first cladding layer, the structure including the core and a polishing stopper layer disposed on the top surface of the core; a step of forming a cladding material layer to cover the first cladding layer and the structure, the cladding material layer becoming the second cladding layer later; a first polishing step of polishing the cladding material layer until the polishing stopper layer is exposed; a step of removing the polishing stopper layer after the first polishing step so that the cladding material layer has a protruding portion protruding upward to a higher level than the top surface of the core; a second polishing step of polishing the cladding material layer after the step of removing the polishing stopper layer so as to remove the protruding portion and thereby make the cladding material layer into the second cladding layer; and a step of forming the third cladding layer and the plasmon generator after the second polishing step.