An apparatus comprising a slider including a slider substrate with a trailing side and a writer with bond pads disposed on the trailing side. The writer has an optic input for receiving an optic output. The apparatus comprises an optoelectronic substrate having a substrate surface facing the trailing side, and having contacts on the substrate surface that are joined to the bond pads by conductive bridges, and having an optoelectronic emitter adjacent the substrate surface for generating the optic output.