A magnetic head including a media heating device that is fabricated within the
magnetic head structure. The media heating device is fabricated with diffusion
barrier layers and/or adhesion layers beneath the heating device layers, between
heating device layers and/or above the heating device layers. A diffusion barrier
layer prevents the diffusion of the metal materials that comprise the heating device
layers into layers that are disposed below and/or above the heating device, and
adhesion layer promotes adhesion of the heating device to the magnetic head layers
adjacent to the heating device. The diffusion barrier layer may be comprised of
tantalum, tantalum nitride, other tantalum alloys, titanium, rhodium and ruthenium,
and the adhesion layer may be comprised of tantalum, tantalum nitride, tantalum
oxide, other tantalum alloys, titanium, nickel iron, chromium, platinum alloys,
nickel alloys and aluminum oxide.