Patent ID: 7508629

Claim:
A magnetic head for perpendicular magnetic recording comprising: a medium facing surface that faces toward a recording medium; a coil for generating a magnetic field corresponding to data to be written on the recording medium; a pole layer having an end face located in the medium facing surface, allowing a magnetic flux corresponding to the field generated by the coil to pass therethrough, and generating a write magnetic field for writing the data on the recording medium by means of a perpendicular magnetic recording system; a shield layer having an end face located in the medium facing surface and having a portion that is away from the medium facing surface and coupled to the pole layer; and a gap layer made of a nonmagnetic material and disposed between the pole layer and the shield layer, wherein: in the medium facing surface, the end face of the shield layer is located forward of the end face of the pole layer along a direction of travel of the recording medium with a specific space created by a thickness of the gap layer; at least part of the coil is disposed between the pole layer and the shield layer and insulated from the pole layer and the shield layer; the end face of the pole layer located in the medium facing surface has a side located adjacent to the gap layer, the side defining a track width; and the shield layer incorporates: a first layer located adjacent to the gap layer and having the end face located in the medium facing surface; and a second layer located on a side of the first layer farther from the gap layer; the second layer has an end face closer to the medium facing surface that is located at a distance from the medium facing surface, the magnetic head further comprising: an insulating layer made of an insulating material and disposed around the at least part of the coil; a first nonmagnetic layer made of a nonmagnetic material and disposed around the first layer; and a second nonmagnetic layer made of a nonmagnetic material and disposed between the medium facing surface and the end face of the second layer closer to the medium facing surface.