Patent ID: 8570843

Claim:
A thermally assisted magnetic head comprising a recording element and a near-field light generating element, wherein the recording element includes a main pole and a leading shield, the leading shield is located on a leading side of the main pole, the near-field light generating element is located on the leading side of the main pole and includes a surface plasmon generating element and an optical waveguide, the surface plasmon generating element is located between the main pole and the leading shield, the optical waveguide is located between the surface plasmon generating element and the leading shield extending in a direction away from a medium from an optical waveguide end face of the optical waveguide appearing on a medium-facing surface and has an optical connection with a leading side of the surface plasmon generating element, and the leading shield has an intrusive part into the optical waveguide end face and an area of the intrusive part is equal to or less than one-half of an area of the optical waveguide end face.