A thermally-assisted magnetic
recording head and a magnetic recording apparatus having the magnetic
recording head built in are disclosed. The magnetic
recording head is capable of recording magnetic information by heating a recording unit of a recording medium and raising its temperature to reduce magnetic coercive force and then applying recording
magnetic field to the recording unit having the reduced coercive force. The magnetic recording head has a light absorbing film having an aperture, a
laser device emitting and directing light through the aperture to the recording medium to head the recording unit and raise its temperature, and a recording magnetic pole for applying the recording
magnetic field to the recording unit. In the aperture, an aperture width W1 is along a polarizing direction of the light emitted from the
laser device while an aperture width W2 is approximately perpendicular to the polarizing direction of the aperture width W1, and the aperture width W1 is shorter than the aperture width W2. The heating source such as a
laser device recedes from the medium to provide a unique configuration where a tip of the recording magnetic pole protrudes ahead of the heating source, and hence, heating beam and the recording magnetic pole can be located close to each other without losing sufficient
energy density to heat the medium.