A magnetic head including a media heating device that is fabricated within the magnetic head structure. The media heating device is fabricated between the writing magnetic pole of a perpendicular magnetic head and the ABS surface of the head, where it serves to heat the magnetic media during the passage of the magnetic media beneath the writing magnetic pole of the magnetic head. The media heating device includes an optical cavity resonator that can produce a high intensity near-field optical spot of subwavelength dimension at the write pole that is appropriate for perpendicular recording at 1 Tbits/in.sup.2 and beyond. Optical energy is coupled into the resonant cavity through a waveguide that is placed proximate the cavity, and optical energy is coupled out of the cavity through a post that is placed within the cavity.