A magnetooptic head is fabricated on a glass slider and flown adjacent a magnetooptic disk in a disk drive. The transducer is fabricated on an end of the glass slider. A planar or channel waveguide structure, fabricated by ion exchange in the end face of the glass slider, couples light from a light source, such as a laser diode, to the disk for reading or writing. The head employs near-field optical techniques at the operating flying height, eliminating the need for a focusing servo. Near field operation also allows increased bit and track densities due to reduced spot size and direct overwrite using Magnetic Field Modulation on current generations (simple) magnetooptic thin films.