Patent ID: 7656613

Claim:
A magnetic head for perpendicular magnetic recording comprising: a medium facing surface that faces toward a recording medium; a coil for generating a magnetic field corresponding to data to be written on the recording medium; a pole layer having an end face located in the medium facing surface, allowing a magnetic flux corresponding to the field generated by the coil to pass therethrough, and generating a write magnetic field for writing the data on the recording medium by means of a perpendicular magnetic recording system; a shield layer having an end face located in the medium facing surface and having a portion that is away from the medium facing surface and coupled to the pole layer; and a gap layer made of a nonmagnetic material and disposed between the pole layer and the shield layer, wherein: in the medium facing surface, the end face of the shield layer is located forward of the end face of the pole layer along a direction of travel of the recording medium with a specific space created by a thickness of the gap layer; at least part of the coil is disposed between the pole layer and the shield layer and insulated from the pole layer and the shield layer; the end face of the pole layer located in the medium facing surface has a side located adjacent to the gap layer, the side defining a track width; and the shield layer incorporates: a first layer located adjacent to the gap layer and having the end face located in the medium facing surface; and a second layer located on a side of the first layer farther from the gap layer; and the first layer has two portions located at positions along a direction of width outside the end face located in the medium facing surface when seen from the medium facing surface, and an end face of each of the two portions closer to the medium facing surface is located at a distance from the medium facing surface, the magnetic head further comprising: an insulating layer made of an insulating material and disposed around the at least part of the coil; and a nonmagnetic layer made of a nonmagnetic material and disposed around the first layer.