Patent ID: 7898759

Claim:
A thermally assisted magnetic recording head including a flying slider, a magnetic field generation device mounted on the flying slider, a first waveguide disposed near the magnetic field generation device for guiding incident light on a side of an air bearing surface of the flying slider, an optical near-field generator disposed at an emission end of the first waveguide, a second waveguide disposed to the first waveguide at a distance of a light wavelength or less, and a first optical detector for detecting the intensity of light propagating in the second waveguide, wherein a second photodetector is disposed at an end of the second waveguide situated in the direction opposite to a proceeding direction of light proceeding in the first waveguide, and scattering light generated by the scattering of near-field light generated from the optical near-field generator is detected by the second photodetector disposed at the end of the second waveguide.