Patent ID: 8441755

Claim:
A magnetic head for perpendicular magnetic recording, comprising: a medium facing surface that faces a recording medium; a coil that produces a magnetic field corresponding to data to be written on the recording medium; a main pole that has an end face located in the medium facing surface, the main pole allowing a magnetic flux corresponding to the magnetic field produced by the coil to pass, and producing a write magnetic field for writing the data on the recording medium by means of a perpendicular magnetic recording system; a first shield made of a magnetic material and having an end face that is located in the medium facing surface at a position forward of the end face of the main pole along a direction of travel of the recording medium; a gap part made of a nonmagnetic material and including a first portion interposed between the main pole and the first shield; and a first return path section made of a magnetic material and disposed forward of the main pole along the direction of travel of the recording medium, wherein: the first return path section connects part of the main pole away from the medium facing surface to the first shield so that a first space is defined by the main pole, the gap part, the first shield, and the first return path section; the first return path section includes a core part; the coil includes a first portion having a planar spiral shape and wound around the core part, the first portion including a first coil element and a second coil element that each extend through the first space; the first coil element is located between the second coil element and the medium facing surface; no part of the coil other than the first and second coil elements exists in the first space; and a minimum distance between the core part and the medium facing surface falls within a range of 1.4 to 4.0 μm.