Patent ID: 8477585

Claim:
An optical pickup compatible with a first optical disk, a second optical disk, and a third optical disk that are used by irradiating light of mutually different wavelengths, the optical pickup comprising: a first light source for emitting light of a first wavelength that is used for the first optical disk, the light of the first wavelength being a shortest wavelength; a second light source for emitting light of a second wavelength that is used for the second optical disk, the light of the second wavelength being an intermediate wavelength; a third light source for emitting light of a third wavelength that is used for the third optical disk, the light of the third wavelength being a longest wavelength; a shared-use objective lens for focusing light emitted from the light sources onto an information recording surface of the optical disks; a collimating lens arranged in an optical path that is shared when light emitted from the light sources arrives at the objective lens; and a shared-use photodetector for receiving light reflected by the optical disks; wherein the effective diameter of light that passes through the objective lens decreases in the order of the light of the first wavelength, the light of the second wavelength, and the light of the third wavelength; the light of the third wavelength is incident on the objective lens in a finite system; the objective lens is provided so that the focal distance of the light of the second wavelength is greater than the focal distance of the light of the first wavelength; and the following expression (1) is satisfied, fD−fB≧fB× 0.2 (1) where fB is the focal distance of the light of the first wavelength, and fD is the focal distance of the light of the second wavelength.