A magnetic head includes a medium facing surface that faces a surface of a recording medium, a write head section, a 
contact sensor that detects contact of the medium facing surface with the surface of the recording medium, and a 
heat sink adjacent to the 
contact sensor. The write head section has a magnetic pole that produces a write 
magnetic field for writing data on the recording medium. The 
contact sensor and the 
heat sink have respective end faces located in the medium facing surface. The contact sensor varies in resistance in response to temperature variations, and is to be energized. The 
heat sink includes an intermediate layer made of a nonmagnetic 
metal material, and two ferromagnetic 
layers made of a 
metal-based magnetic material, the two ferromagnetic 
layers being disposed with the intermediate layer therebetween, and being antiferromagnetically exchange-coupled to each other via the intermediate layer.