Patent ID: 7995308

Claim:
A magnetic head for perpendicular magnetic recording comprising: a medium facing surface that faces toward a recording medium; a coil that generates a magnetic field corresponding to data to be written on the recording medium; a pole layer that has an end face located in the medium facing surface, allows a magnetic flux corresponding to the magnetic field generated by the coil to pass therethrough and generates a write magnetic field for writing the data on the recording medium by means of a perpendicular magnetic recording system; a first shield made of a magnetic material and having an end face located in the medium facing surface at a position backward of the end face of the pole layer along a direction of travel of the recording medium; a first gap layer made of a nonmagnetic material and having an end face located in the medium facing surface, the first gap layer being disposed between the first shield and the pole layer; a magnetic layer connected to the first shield and disposed at such a position that the first shield is sandwiched between the magnetic layer and the pole layer; a second shield made of a magnetic material and having an end face located in the medium facing surface at a position forward of the end face of the pole layer along the direction of travel of the recording medium; a second gap layer made of a nonmagnetic material and having an end face located in the medium facing surface, the second gap layer being disposed between the second shield and the pole layer; and a substrate on which the coil, the pole layer, the magnetic layer, the first and second shields, and the first and second gap layers are stacked, the first shield being located closer to the substrate than the second shield, wherein: the first shield includes a first layer, and a second layer that is disposed between the first layer and the first gap layer; a length of the magnetic layer taken in a direction orthogonal to the medium facing surface is greater than a length of the pole layer taken in the direction orthogonal to the medium facing surface; a length of the first layer taken in the direction orthogonal to the medium facing surface is smaller than the length of the pole layer taken in the direction orthogonal to the medium facing surface; and in the medium facing surface, both the first layer and the second layer have a width greater than a width of the pole layer.