Method of manufacturing magnetic head, and magnetic head sub-structure

A method of manufacturing magnetic heads, each of the magnetic heads comprising:

• a medium facing surface that faces toward a recording medium;
• a coil that generates a magnetic field corresponding to data to be written on the recording medium;
• and
• a pole layer that incorporates a track width defining portion having an end face located in the medium facing surface, the pole layer allowing a magnetic flux corresponding to the field generated by the coil to pass therethrough and generating a write magnetic field for writing the data on the recording medium, the method comprising the steps of:
• fabricating a magnetic head substructure by forming a plurality of sets of the pole layer and the coil in a substrate, wherein a plurality of rows of pre-head portions that will be the respective magnetic heads later are aligned in the substructure;
• and
• fabricating the magnetic heads by separating the pre-head portions from one another through cutting the substructure, wherein
• the step of fabricating the substructure includes the step of forming a plurality of indicators each of which serves as a reference for indicating a location of a region in which the medium facing surfaces of the magnetic heads are to be formed.