Heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology needs a light delivery system with an incorporated near-field transducer (NFT) as a minute heat generator. A novel system for light delivery with a triangular spot size converter (SSC) and an optical fiber is proposed. The advantages of using a triangular SSC are optical efficiency and integration tolerance between the optical fiber and the NFT. It also has good affinity to conventional head fabrication process. The optical fiber enables flexible laser location. It was confirmed that fabricated triangular SSC can propagate light and reduce beam spot. Computer simulations and experiments demonstrated possibility of integration of light delivery system between NFT, SSC, and optical fiber. Flyability of a pico slider with an optical fiber was also demonstrated. It shows that the optical fiber does not have a big impact on flyability below 10 nm flying height and off-track vibration.Index Terms-Heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), light delivery, near-field transducer, spot size converter.

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Light de6very with spot size converter (SSC) and optical fiber for heat assisted magnetic recording is proposed. It has an advantage in optical efficiency and integration tolerance. sse was fabricated and confirmed its operation. F1y-abiUty of pico s6der with optical fiber was also demonstrated.