Magnetic recording heads having thin thermally conductive undercoating

A magnetic head, comprising:

• a substrate;
• an undercoating coupled to the substrate, wherein the undercoating is constructed of a material having a thermal conductivity greater than that of amorphous Al2O3;
• a read element coupled to the undercoating;
• and
• a write element coupled to the undercoating, the write element having an electrically conductive coil.

A magnetic head, comprising:

• a substrate;
• an undercoating coupled to the substrate;
• wherein the undercoating has a thickness of less than 1.5 microns in a direction perpendicular to a plane of a surface of the undercoating engaging the substrate;
• wherein the undercoating is constructed of a material having a thermal conductivity greater than that of amorphous Al2O3;
• wherein the substrate and the undercoating are constructed of materials having thermal expansion coefficients within a predetermined range from each other;
• a pad coupled to a layer positioned between the pad and the undercoating;
• a read element coupled to the undercoating;
• and
• a write element coupled to the undercoating, the write element having an electrically conductive coil.

A magnetic storage system, comprising:

• magnetic media;
• at least one head for reading from and writing to the magnetic media, each head having:
• a substrate;
• an undercoating coupled to the substrate, wherein the undercoating has a thickness of less than 1.5 microns in a direction perpendicular to a plane of a surface of the undercoating engaging the substrate, wherein the undercoating is constructed of a material having a thermal conductivity greater than that of amorphous Al2O3;
• a read element coupled to the undercoating;
• and
• a write element coupled to the read element, the write element having an electrically conductive coil;
• a slider for supporting the head;
• and
• a control unit coupled to the head for controlling operation of the head.