Patent ID: 8760809

Claim:
A thermally-assisted magnetic recording head comprising: a medium facing surface facing a recording medium; a main pole producing a write magnetic field for writing data on a recording medium; a waveguide including a core through which light propagates, and a cladding provided around the core; a plasmon generator configured to excite a surface plasmon based on the light propagating through the core; and an insulating film disposed between the main pole and the plasmon generator, wherein the main pole and the plasmon generator are aligned along a direction of travel of a recording medium, the plasmon generator has a front end face located in the medium facing surface, and a first inclined surface connected to the front end face and facing toward the medium facing surface, the front end face generates near-field light based on the surface plasmon, the first inclined surface is inclined relative to a direction perpendicular to the medium facing surface, and has a first edge located in the medium facing surface and a second edge farthest form the medium facing surface, in a region between the medium facing surface and a virtual plane that passes through the second edge and is parallel to the medium facing surface, a thickness of the plasmon generator in the direction of travel of a recording medium increases with increasing distance from the medium facing surface, the main pole includes an interposition part interposed between the first inclined surface and the medium facing surface, the interposition part has a second inclined surface that is opposed to the first inclined surface with the insulating film interposed therebetween, and the second inclined surface is inclined relative to the direction perpendicular to the medium facing surface.