Patent ID: 8472287

Claim:
A thermally assisted magnetic head comprising: a slider; and a light source unit, the slider having a groove in a surface of a trailing-side end face for insertion of a suspension, and a recording element, a plasmon generating element, a waveguide, and a reproducing element at one of two opposite ends in a length direction X, wherein an airflow direction in a medium-facing surface of the slider is taken as the length direction X, a direction perpendicular thereto is taken as a width direction Y, and a direction perpendicular to both the length direction X and the width direction Y is taken as a height direction Z, the recording element being disposed adjacent to the plasmon generating element, the waveguide being disposed adjacent to the plasmon generating element, and the light source unit being disposed on a back surface of the slider opposite from the medium-facing surface and having a laser diode chip and a holder, the laser diode chip being supported by the holder and optically connected to the waveguide in the height direction Z.