Patent ID: 8483035

Claim:
An inspection apparatus for inspecting a thermally assisted magnetic recording head element, comprising: a table unit movable in a plane having a thermally assisted magnetic recording head element as a specimen mounted thereon; a cantilever comprising a probe for scanning a surface of the specimen mounted on the table unit; a vibration driving unit for vibrating the cantilever vertically with respect to the surface of the specimen; a displacement detecting unit for detecting vibration of the cantilever by irradiating light onto a surface of the cantilever vibrated by the vibration driving unit which is opposed to a surface of the cantilever comprising the probe and by detecting light reflected from the cantilever; a signal output unit for outputting a signal to generate evanescent light from a portion of light emission of evanescent light of the thermally assisted magnetic recording head element; a scattered light detecting unit for detecting scattered light generated from a surface of the cantilever when the probe of the cantilever enters a region of emission of evanescent light generated from the portion of light emission of evanescent light of the thermally assisted magnetic recording head element by a signal output from the signal output unit; and a processing unit for determining whether a state of generation of evanescent light generated from the portion of light emission of evanescent light of the thermally assisted magnetic recording head element is good or bad using position information of the table unit having the specimen mounted thereon and a signal obtained by detecting the scattered light with the scattered light detecting unit.