Submount-integrated photodetector for monitoring a laser for a heat-assisted magnetic recording head

摘要

A submount 304 for a HAMR (Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording) head which comprises a laser 202 and photodetector 308 wherein the photodetector is configured to receive light from the laser via the head slider 410. The purpose of the invention is to enable alignment of the laser to waveguide 402 leading to the NFT (Near Field Transducer) 404. The photodetector may be a photodiode or an array of photodiodes. The submount may be made of a semiconductor material which has an integrally formed semiconductor photodiode. The photodetector may be positioned at the interface between the slider and the submount. There may be a secondary photodetector 312 which detects the back facet radiation from the laser. There may be a plurality of photodiode contact pads 309 which transmit a feedback signal from said photodetector 308, from which the optical energy received is computable.