US Patent 7450349 Magnetic head with soft magnetic shield and magnetic storage

Embodiments of the invention avoid erasure of recorded data by concentrating stray fields on a magnetic head element. According to one embodiment, in a magnetic storage apparatus using a perpendicular recording medium with a soft magnetic under layer, a soft magnetic shield is provided so as to surround the upper parts and sides of magnetic head elements. A distance between the soft magnetic shield and the medium is shorter than that between the soft magnetic shield and the magnetic head element.