Thermally-assisted magnetic recording head including a main pole, a plasmon generator and two side shields

A thermally-assisted magnetic recording head comprising:

• a medium facing surface configured to face a recording medium;
• a coil for producing a magnetic field corresponding to data to be written on the recording medium;
• a main pole having a front end face located in the medium facing surface;
• a waveguide including a core and a cladding, the core allowing light to propagate therethrough, the cladding being provided around the core;
• a plasmon generator having a near-field light generating surface located in the medium facing surface;
• and
• a first side shield and a second side shield each formed of a magnetic material, wherein
• the main pole is configured to pass a magnetic flux corresponding to the magnetic field produced by the coil, and to produce from the front end face a write magnetic field for use to write the data on the recording medium,
• the plasmon generator is configured to excite a surface plasmon on the plasmon generator based on the light propagating through the core, and to generate near-field light from the near-field light generating surface based on the surface plasmon,
• the front end face of the main pole includes a first end face portion, and a second end face portion contiguous with the first end face portion, the first end face portion and the second end face portion being located in the medium facing surface,
• the second end face portion is greater than the first end face portion in width in a track width direction,
• the near-field light generating surface, the first end face portion and the second end face portion are arranged in this order along a direction of travel of the recording medium,
• the main pole includes a first portion and a second portion, the first portion including the first end face portion, the second portion including the second end face portion,
• the first side shield has a first side shield end face located in the medium facing surface,
• the second side shield has a second side shield end face located in the medium facing surface, and
• the first side shield end face and the second side shield end face are located on opposite sides of at least part of the near-field light generating surface and at least part of the first end face portion in the track width direction such that the at least part of the near-field light generating surface and the at least part of the first end face portion are interposed between the first and second side shield end faces.