Patent ID: 7248544

Claim:
An optical head comprising: a light source for radiating light of a preset wavelength; a light condensing optical component for condensing the light radiated from said light source on an optical disc and for condensing the return light from said optical disc; an optical path branching optical component for branching the optical path of the return light reflected from said optical disc and for collimating the branched return light so as to be parallel to the light radiated from said light source; a composite optical component arranged at a position on which falls the return light branched by said optical path branching optical component, wherein said position is a vicinity of a focal point of the return light, said composite optical component including light splitting means for spatially splitting at least the branched return light; and a light receiving unit having a plurality of light receiving areas for receiving a plurality of return light beams obtained on spatial splitting by said light splitting means.