Hyperbolic metamaterial-based near-field transducer for heat assisted magnetic recording head

An apparatus, comprising:

• a slider configured for heat-assisted magnetic recording;
• a near-field transducer comprising a peg situated at or near an air bearing surface of the slider, the peg comprising a plurality of sublayers, the sublayers comprising alternating an elemental plasmonic material sublayer and an insulating material sublayer to comprise a hyperbolic metamaterial, wherein the elemental plasmonic material of the peg is the same material as that of at least one wall of the near-field transducer surrounding the peg and the insulating material of the peg is the same material as that of a waveguide core;
• and
• an optical waveguide of the slider configured to couple light from a light source to the near-field transducer, the waveguide including the waveguide core.