Patent ID: 8325440

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 magnetic layer disposed backward of the pole layer along a direction of travel of the recording medium; 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 the direction of travel of the recording medium, the first shield being disposed between the magnetic layer and the pole layer and being in contact with the magnetic layer; 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 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, wherein the first shield is located closer to the substrate than is the second shield, a portion of the coil is present between the magnetic layer and the pole layer, the magnetic head further comprises an antireflection film having an end face located in the medium facing surface, the antireflection film being disposed between the first shield and the first gap layer or between the first gap layer and the pole layer, and a surface of the antireflection film facing toward the pole layer and defined by a first peripheral edge and a second peripheral edge of the antireflection film in a track width direction is flat and is located closer to the pole layer than is a surface of the portion of the coil facing toward the pole layer.