In the thin-film magnetic head of the present invention, the distance to a heat-generating
layer is shorter from the end part on the side facing, a recording medium in a
magnetoresistive device than from the end part on the side facing the recording
medium in an electromagnetic transducer. Therefore, even when the thin-film magnetic
head tilts so that its electromagnetic transducer side approaches the recording
medium when floating up from the recording medium, the amount of thermal expansion
caused by the heat from the heat-generating layer is greater in the magnetoresistive
device than in the electromagnetic transducer. This reduces the gap between the
magnetoresistive device and the recording medium, whereby a high reproducing output
can be obtained.
