Patent ID: 8139448

Claim:
A thermally-assisted recording (TAR) head structure for a magnetic recording disk drive comprising: a slider having a disk-facing surface, a top surface opposite said disk-facing surface, a front end, a trailing end and two sides, the slider having a height defined by the distance between the disk-facing surface and the top surface and a length defined by the distance between the front and trailing ends; a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) having first and second mirrors, a gain layer between the mirrors and a dielectric layer having an aperture therein, the VCSEL being attached to the slider with the path of the laser radiation output being in the direction from the slider front end to the slider trailing end; and an external cavity connected to the VCSEL and formed of material transparent to the laser radiation, the external cavity having an input surface for receipt of laser radiation output from the VCSEL, an output surface near the slider trailing end, a partially reflecting third mirror near the output surface, and at least one reflective surface between the input surface and the third mirror for reflecting laser radiation between the VCSEL and the third mirror.