Patent ID: 8824085

Claim:
A heat-assisted magnetic recording system comprising: at least one magnetic recording read/write head; at least one laser diode configured to illuminate at least a portion of at least one magnetic recording medium; a laser diode controller programmed for: configuring the at least one laser diode at a first non-zero power level setting during at least one magnetic recording write operation by the magnetic recording read/write head, and configuring the at least one laser diode at a second non-zero power level setting at a time other than during at least one magnetic recording write operation by the magnetic recording read/write head; at least one laser power level sensor configured to detect a power level of the at least one laser diode configured at the second non-zero power level at the time other than during at least one magnetic recording write operation by the magnetic recording read/write head; and the laser diode controller being further programmed for modifying at least one power level setting of the at least one laser diode in response to at least one output signal of the at least one laser power level sensor.