Thermally-assisted recording (TAR) head with waveguide having tapered region coupled to near-field transducer

A thermally-assisted recording (TAR) head for writing to a magnetic recording layer on a magnetic recording disk comprising:

• an air-bearing slider having an air-bearing surface (ABS) for facing the magnetic recording layer on the disk, the ABS having an along-the-track axis and a cross-track axis orthogonal to the along-the-track axis;
• a write pole on the slider and having a tip at the ABS on the along-the-track axis;
• an optical waveguide on the slider having a thickness in the along-the-track axis direction and a tapered surface oriented generally orthogonal to the along-the-track axis, said tapered surface having a width that tapers linearly toward the ABS from a width W1 in the cross-track axis direction at a region recessed a distance H from the ABS to a width W2 less than W1 in the cross-track axis direction wherein the end of the waveguide includes a non-tapered portion that extends from the ABS to the portion of the waveguide where the tapered surface has said width W2, the length of the non-tapered portion extension being a distance D3;
• and
• a near-field transducer (NFT) on the slider between the write pole and the optical waveguide, the NFT having a surface parallel to and spaced from said waveguide tapered surface and an output tip at the ABS, the output tip being located on the along-the-track axis between the write pole tip and the waveguide end and having a height D2 greater than or equal to D3 from the ABS to a region recessed from the ABS, the output tip having an apex facing the write pole tip and a back edge wider than the apex in the cross-track axis direction and facing said waveguide tapered surface.