Head with a transducer overcoat having a trailing air flow dam that is shallowly recessed from an air bearing surface

A head comprising:

• a slider having a leading face and a trailing face and an air bearing surface, the air bearing surface defining an upstream direction pointing from the trailing face to the leading face;
• and
• a transducer;
• the slider also having an overcoat layer, the overcoat layer including the trailing face and overcoating the transducer;
• wherein the air bearing surface includes:
• a trailing pad including a major surface adjacent the transducer, the major surface lying in a primary plane;
• a sub-ambient pressure cavity disposed upstream of the overcoat layer and being recessed from the primary plane by a cavity depth in the range 0.8 to 2 microns;
• and
• wherein the overcoat layer includes:
• a trailing air flow dam being recessed from the primary plane by a step depth in the range 0.05 to 0.5 microns, and
• a corner region recessed from the primary plane by at least the cavity depth.