Patent ID: 7009812

Claim:
A thin film magnetic recording head for perpendicular recording using magnetic media with a soft underlayer comprising: a yoke that includes a flux bearing pole piece, a main pole piece that is attached to the flux bearing pole piece and extends to an air-bearing surface, and a return pole piece that extends to an air-bearing surface; a coil that passes through the yoke between the main pole piece and the return pole piece; a trailing shield connected to the return pole piece and extending along the air-bearing surface toward the main pole piece, the trailing shield confronting the main pole piece to form a write gap with a length along the air-bearing surface that is less than a thickness of the coil between the main pole piece and the return pole piece; and a read head with first and second read shields with the second read shield being separated from the flux bearing pole piece by a separation gap, the separation gap between the main pole piece and the second read shield being selected to result in a reluctance between the main pole and the second read shield that is substantially larger than a predetermined reluctance between the second read shield and the soft underlayer.