Heterogeneous integration of near field transducer components for heat-assisted magnetic recording heads

A recording head for use in heat-assisted magnetic recording, comprising:

• a write pole extending to a media-facing surface of the recording head;
• a near field transducer located adjacent to the write pole, the near field transducer configured to generate plasmonic activity from light delivered by a waveguide and to focus and direct the plasmonic activity toward a recording surface of magnetic recording media placed adjacent to the media-facing surface, the near field transducer including a plasmonic disk and a peg extending from the plasmonic disk toward the media-facing surface, the plasmonic disk and peg being disposed on a sunken disk such that the peg has a first portion that extends beyond the sunken disk and a second portion that forms an interface with the sunken disk, wherein the first portion of the peg is highly crystalline and the second portion of the peg is polycrystalline, and wherein the interface is substantially free of voids.