Perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) writer with recessed leading shield

A write head for perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) comprising:

• a main pole having a pole tip that terminates in an air bearing surface (ABS) plane;
• a trailing shield (TS) formed at a trailing edge side of said pole tip, said TS having a distal planar edge that is co-planar with said ABS plane;
• horizontally disposed side shields (SS) symmetrically formed to each side of said pole tip, said SS having distal planar edges that are co-planar with said ABS plane;
• a leading shield (LS) layer formed at a leading edge side of said pole tip wherein said LS layer has a distal edge having a central planar portion that is parallel to said ABS plane but recessed proximally away from said ABS plane and having two symmetrically disposed planar regions on opposite sides of said recessed central planar portion that are co-planar with said ABS plane, wherein said symmetrically disposed regions are continuously connected to said recessed central planar portion by means of upwardly tilted portions that make opposite recess tilt angles θ to the ABS plane;
• wherein
• a leading-edge taper (LET) layer is formed on said LS layer, wherein said LET layer is conformally adjacent to a tapered edge of said main pole and has a planar distal edge that is parallel to and recessed from said ABS plane.