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AssigneeTDK Corporation
InventorsKosuke Tanaka, Seiichi Takayama, Satoshi Tomikawa
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Provided is a method for forming a near-field light generating element, which is capable of sufficiently suppressing the unevenness of a waveguide surface and the distortion within the waveguide. The forming method comprises the steps of: forming a first etching stopper layer on a lower waveguide layer; forming a second etching stopper layer; forming, on the second etching stopper layer, a plasmon antenna material layer; performing etching with the second etching stopper layer used as a stopper, to form a first side surface of plasmon antenna; forming a side-surface protecting mask so as to cover the first side surface; and performing etching with the first and second etching stopper layers used as stoppers, to form the second side surface. By providing the first and second etching stopper layer, over-etching can be prevented even when each etching process takes enough etch time, which allows easy management of etching endpoints.
A method for forming a near-field light generating element including a plasmon antenna that has a first side surface and a second side surface, both surfaces being inclined to a substrate surface, and generates near-field light by being irradiated with light, the method comprising the steps of:
A near-field light generating element comprising:
A thermally-assisted magnetic recording head comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.