Patent ID: 8000064

Claim:
A perpendicular recording thin-film magnetic head comprising: a main magnetic pole having a tip main magnetic pole part extending in a height direction from a medium-opposing surface and a base main magnetic pole part connected to the tip main magnetic pole part on a side opposite from the medium-opposing surface side and wider than the tip main magnetic pole part in a track width direction; a return yoke extending in the height direction from the medium-opposing surface and magnetically coupling with the base main magnetic pole part at a position distanced from the medium-opposing surface in the height direction, while opposing the tip main magnetic pole part through a write gap layer in a bit length direction in the medium- opposing surface; a main magnetic pole adjacent magnetic shield layer extending along at least part of side faces of the main magnetic pole other than a medium-opposing surface of the tip main magnetic pole part as seen in a laminating direction, while holding a nonmagnetic layer between the main magnetic pole and the main magnetic pole adjacent magnetic shield layer; a pair of side shield layers extending along the medium-opposing surface so as to hold the tip main magnetic pole part by way of the nonmagnetic layer in the track width direction, wherein the main magnetic pole adjacent magnetic shield layer extends along at least a side face of the tip main magnetic pole part in the side faces of the main magnetic pole other than the medium-opposing surface of the tip main magnetic pole part, and the length of the main magnetic pole adjacent magnetic shield layer in the height direction is greater than the length of the side shield layers in the height direction.