A test involves iterations over a series of laser powers of a heat-assisted read/write head. The iterations involve writing to a recording medium at the selected laser power for a sufficient duration to ensure thermal equilibrium of the read/write head at an end of the write. A clearance-control heater of the read/write head is transitioned from a pre-write power before a start of the write to a steady-state write power. The iterations further involve measuring a temperature of the read/write head during the write and adjusting the steady-state write power to achieve a predefined difference between the temperature at the start of the write and the end of the write. The adjusted steady state write power is stored for each iteration. A write-induced protrusion is determined based on the iterations and used for calibration of the read/write head.