A thermally assisted magnetic head has a medium-facing surface facing a
medium, and comprises: a waveguide an end face of which is exposed in the
medium-facing surface; an electroconductive near-field light generator
plate disposed on a medium-facing surface of the waveguide so that a
principal face thereof faces the medium; and an electroconductive
near-field light scatter plate disposed on the medium-facing surface of
the thermally assisted magnetic head so that a principal face thereof
faces the medium; when viewed from a direction perpendicular to the
medium-facing surface, the near-field light generator plate has a cusp
portion at an end; when viewed from the direction perpendicular to the
medium-facing surface, the near-field light scatter plate is arranged
along the other end opposite to the cusp portion of the near-field light
generator plate; when viewed from the direction perpendicular to the
medium-facing surface, a width of the near-field light scatter plate in a
first direction perpendicular to a direction connecting the cusp portion
and the other end of the near-field light generator plate is larger than
a width in the first direction of the near-field light generator plate.