Patent ID: 7911882

Claim:
A thin-film magnetic head comprising: a substrate having an opposed-to-medium surface and an element-formed surface perpendicular to said opposed-to-medium surface; an electromagnetic coil element for writing data signals, formed on/above said element-formed surface, and having a main magnetic pole layer, an auxiliary magnetic pole layer and a write coil layer; and at least one near-field-light-generating layer for heating a part of a magnetic medium during write operation by generating a near-field light, formed of a material including free electrons, said at least one near-field-light-generating layer having a shape tapered toward a head end surface on the opposed-to-medium surface side, and comprising a near-field-light-generating portion having a light-received surface and a tip reaching the head end surface on the opposed -to-medium surface side; and a first reflective portion having a first reflecting surface parallel to said element-formed surface, and positioned on an opposite side to said opposed-to-medium surface in relation to said near-field-light-generating portion, said light-received surface and said first reflecting surface being covered with an overcoat layer formed of a dielectric material, said light-received surface being sloped in respect to said element-formed surface in the form that a portion in the head end surface side of said light-received surface is lifted up or held down, and being provided in a position where an incident light propagating from a head end surface opposite to said opposed-to-medium surface through the dielectric material can reach at least a part of said light-received surface, enter the material including free electrons from said light-received surface, and force the free electrons to be oscillated uniformly to excite plasmon, and said main magnetic pole layer and said near-field-light-generating portion being in contact with or adjacent to each other at least at the tip of said near-field-light-generating portion.