To provide a perpendicular magnetic recording head which prevents unintentional deletion of information caused by spreading of a recording magnetic field.

A leading shield 14, two side shields 18R and 18L, and a trailing shield 20 are arranged around a main magnetic pole layer 40 (distal end part 40A). Since a nonmagnetic layer 15 with uniform thickness is deposited by an ALD method between the distal end part 40A and the two side shields 18R and 18L, spaces SR and SL are constant irrespective of positions. As compared with the case where spaces SR and SL are different depending on positions, spreading of a recording magnetic field is sufficiently suppressed in a recording track width direction.