An external cavity laser of a recording head includes a channel waveguide that delivers light towards a media-facing surface of the recording head. The laser includes an externally mounted part with an active region having a longitudinal axis corresponding to a light propagation direction of the channel waveguide. The externally mounted part has a reflective back facet and anti-reflective front facet. The laser includes a near-field transducer at an end of the channel waveguide proximate the media facing surface. The reflective back facet and the near-field transducer define a resonator of the external cavity laser.

A method for editing an audio stream includes recording and storing an audio stream having a first audio segment and a second audio segment. The method includes receiving a request to edit the second audio segment and processing the audio stream to identify a first pause segment defining a period of silence from an end of the first audio segment to a start of the second audio segment. Further, the method includes determining the second audio segment as a segment beginning at an end of the first pause segment and terminating either at an end of the audio stream or at a beginning of a second pause segment recorded in succession to the second audio segment, obtaining a third audio segment including a revised version of the second audio segment, and replacing the second audio segment with the third audio segment.

A magnetic recording medium includes a substrate, and a magnetic recording layer including magnetic grains having an L1.sub.0 structure. The magnetic recording layer is (001) oriented, and a surface of growth of the magnetic recording layer includes a (001) plane, a (111) plane, and planes equivalent to the (111) plane. An area ratio of the (111) plane and the planes equivalent to the (111) plane, represented by (A.sub.111+A.sub.111e)/(A.sub.001+A.sub.111+A.sub.111e), is in a range of 0.2 to 0.7, where A.sub.111 denotes an area of the (111) plane, A.sub.111e denotes an area of the planes equivalent to the (111) plane, and A.sub.001 denotes an area of the (001) plane.

A disk drive has a recording head slidably coupled to a rail and in magnetic communication with a disk surface. The recording head has an optical power interface and an optical data interface. An optical transceiver is fixably mounted proximate an end of the rail and optically coupled to the optical power interface and/or the optical data interface of the recording head. The coupling between the optical transceiver and the interfaces facilitates writing data to the disk surface and/or reading data from the disk surface via the recording head.

A disk drive has a recording head slidably coupled to a rail and in magnetic communication with a disk surface. The recording head has an optical power interface and an optical data interface. An optical transceiver is fixably mounted proximate an end of the rail and optically coupled to the optical power interface and/or the optical data interface of the recording head. The coupling between the optical transceiver and the interfaces facilitates writing data to the disk surface and/or reading data from the disk surface via the recording head.

A thermally-assisted magnetic recording head includes a medium facing surface, a main pole, a waveguide, and a plasmon generator. A second metal layer of the plasmon generator includes a second front end facing the medium facing surface. A third metal layer of the plasmon generator includes a narrow portion located on the second metal layer. The narrow portion includes a front end face located in the medium facing surface and configured to generate near-field light from a surface plasmon, and a rear end opposite the front end face. The rear end is located farther from the medium facing surface than is the second front end.

A thermally-assisted magnetic recording head includes a medium facing surface, a main pole, a waveguide, and a plasmon generator. A second metal layer of the plasmon generator includes a second front end facing the medium facing surface. A third metal layer of the plasmon generator includes a narrow portion located on the second metal layer. The narrow portion includes a front end face located in the medium facing surface and configured to generate near-field light from a surface plasmon, and a rear end opposite the front end face. The rear end is located farther from the medium facing surface than is the second front end.

A recording head has a light source that emits light at a wavelength in a wavelength range of 260 nm to 460 nm inclusive. A slider body of the light source includes a magnetic pole extending to a media-facing surface of the recording head and integrated photonics that deliver the light to a recording medium. The integrated photonics include a waveguide that couples the light from the light source to the media-facing surface of the slider and a near-field transducer coupled to receive the light from the waveguide. The near-field transducer has a surface plasmon plate and a peg extending from the surface plasmon plate. The surface plasmon plate is formed of a first material having a first plasmonic quality factor (Q-factor) above 5 in the wavelength range, the peg formed of a second material having a second Q-factor above 1.2 in the wavelength range.

A heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) head has a protective multilayer confined to a window of the disk-facing surface of the slider that surrounds the near-field transducer (NFT) end and write pole end. The protective multilayer is made up of a first film of silicon nitride directly on and in contact with the NFT end and the write pole end and a second film of a metal oxide on and in contact with the silicon nitride film. The silicon nitride film is preferably formed by RIBD but is thin enough so that it does not contain any significant amount of other compounds. The metal oxide is preferably silicon dioxide, or alternatively an oxide of hafnium, tantalum, yttrium or zirconium, and together with the silicon nitride film provides a protective multilayer of sufficient thickness to be optically transparent to radiation and resistant to thermal oxidation.

A heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) head for recording data in data tracks of a HAMR disk has a gas-bearing slider that supports a near-field transducer (NFT) and a main magnetic pole formed of two layers. The first main pole layer has a cross-track width at the slider's gas-bearing surface (GBS) that tapers down in the direction towards the NFT where the optical spot is formed. The second main pole layer is located away from the NFT and has a substantially wider cross-track width than the first main pole layer so as to provide sufficient magnetic field for writing. Layers of heat sink material are located on the sloped cross-track sides of the tapered first main pole layer to reduce the temperature and thus the likelihood of oxidation of the main pole layers.