Patent ID: 8355300

Claim:
A thermal assisted recording (TAR) patterned-media magnetic recording disk drive comprising: a rotatable magnetic recording disk having a plurality of concentric data tracks, each data track patterned into discrete magnetizable data islands separated by nonmagnetic spaces, and a plurality of angularly spaced nondata regions extending generally radially across the data tracks, each nondata region patterned into discrete blocks separated by gaps in the along-the-track direction; a write head for applying a magnetic field to the data islands; a laser light source; an optical channel and near-field transducer for directing radiation from the light source to the disk to heat the data islands, the near-field transducer generating a power absorption profile on the disk with a characteristic along-the-track spot size less than the along-the-track length of the gaps between the nondata blocks; a carrier for supporting the write head and near-field transducer, the carrier having a disk-facing surface maintained at a distance less than the wavelength of the laser light from the disk; and a sensor for sensing radiation from the nondata blocks and gaps in the nondata regions as the disk rotates.