Thermally-assisted magnetic recording head including plasmon generator

A thermally-assisted magnetic recording head comprising:

• a medium facing surface that faces a magnetic recording medium;
• a magnetic pole that has an end face located in the medium facing surface and produces a write magnetic field for writing data on the magnetic recording medium;
• a waveguide including a core and a clad, the core propagating light;
• and
• a plasmon generator, wherein:
• the core has an evanescent light generating surface that generates evanescent light based on the light propagated through the core;
• the plasmon generator has an outer surface including a plasmon exciting part, and has a near-field light generating part lying at an end of the plasmon exciting part and located in the medium facing surface, the plasmon exciting part facing the evanescent light generating surface with a predetermined distance therebetween, the plasmon generator being located above the evanescent light generating surface;
• a surface plasmon is excited on the plasmon exciting part through coupling with the evanescent light generated from the evanescent light generating surface;
• the near-field light generating part generates near-field light based on the surface plasmon excited on the plasmon exciting part;
• the outer surface of the plasmon generator further includes first and second inclined surfaces that are each connected to the plasmon exciting part, and a front end face that is located in the medium facing surface and connected to the first and second inclined surfaces, the first and second inclined surfaces increasing in distance from each other with increasing distance from the plasmon exciting part;
• the front end face has first and second portions that are connected to each other into a V-shape, and the end face of the magnetic pole has a portion interposed between the first and second portions of the front end face;
• the first portion includes a first side that lies at an end of the first inclined surface;
• the second portion includes a second side that lies at an end of the second inclined surface;
• each of the first side and the second side includes an upper part and a lower part that are continuous with each other;
• and
• an angle formed between the lower part of the first side and the lower part of the second side is smaller than that formed between the upper part of the first side and the upper part of the second side.