Patent ID: 8325566

Claim:
A thermally-assisted magnetic recording head comprising: a substrate having (a) an element-integration surface on which layers constructing components of the recording head are formed, the element-integration surface extending in a first plane and (b) an opposed-to-medium surface extending in a second plane perpendicular to the first plane, in the element-integration surface of the substrate, a light source mounted on said element-integration surface; a waveguide through which a light generated from said light source propagates; and a magnetic pole for generating a write field from its end on an opposed-to-medium surface side, an optical axis of said light source being one of (a) parallel with an edge on the opposed-to-medium surface side and parallel with said element-integration surface, and (b) inclined at a predetermined acute angle from said edge on the opposed-to-medium surface side and parallel with said element-integration surface.