HEAT-ASSISTED MAGNETIC RECORDING (HAMR) HEAD WITH DIFFUSION BARRIER BETWEEN WAVEGUIDE CORE AND WRITE POLE LIP

摘要

A heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) head in which the core of the optical waveguide has an end face that abuts the NFT and the write pole lip has a diffusion barrier between the end face of the waveguide core and the write pole lip. The diffusion barrier layer may also be located between the waveguide core end face and the NFT, in which case it is formed of an optically transparent material, like TaNx, TiNx, ZrNx, HfNX, NbNx, CrNx, VNx, TiC, TaC, WC, SiC or SiNx, or a layer of Au, Ru, Rh or Ir with a thickness less than 5 nm. In addition to being located between both the NFT and the write pole lip and the waveguide core end face, the diffusion barrier layer may also be located between the waveguide core and the lower waveguide cladding layer.

主权项

1. A heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) head for writing to a magnetic recording layer comprising:
a head carrier having a recording-layer-facing surface; a write pole on a surface generally orthogonal to the recording-layer-facing surface of the head carrier and having a lip at the recording-layer-facing surface; an optical waveguide on the head carrier having a core oriented generally parallel to the write pole and an end face recessed from and generally parallel to the recording-layer-facing surface; a diffusion barrier layer sandwiched between the write pole lip and the waveguide core end face; and a near-field transducer (NFT) layer on the head carrier at the recording-layer-facing surface and optically coupled to the waveguide core end face.