Heat-assisted recording head with one or more surface-plasmonic plates operable as a near-field transducer

A recording head includes a dielectric waveguide that extends towards a media-facing surface of the recording head. A hybrid waveguide is near the media-facing surface and includes the dielectric waveguide and a heat spreader plate having a crosstrack dimension that is at least twice that of a core of the dielectric waveguide. The hybrid waveguide is operable to combine a total internal reflection of the dielectric waveguide with a surface plasmon confinement of the heat spreading plate to excite TM-even mode in the hybrid waveguide. A surface-plasmonic plate is in contact with the heat spreader plate, the second surface-plasmonic plate has a peg extending from an enlarged portion. Light energy from the TM-even mode propagating from the hybrid waveguide to the surface-plasmonic plate causes the surface plasmonic plate to focus the light energy to heat a recording medium.