Patent ID: 7639574

Claim:
An optical pickup for optically writing information on an optical disk and optically reading the information recorded on the optical disk, comprising: a two-wavelength monolithic laser diode for emitting a laser beam for CD and a laser beam for DVD having mutually different wavelengths; a two-wavelength one-sided diffractive element for spectrally separating the laser beam for CD and the laser beam for DVD emitted from the two-wavelength monolithic laser diode; a polarizing beam splitter for allowing the laser beam passed through the two-wavelength one-sided diffractive element to be introduced to an optical disk side and for reflecting reflected light from the optical disk and introducing the reflected light to a photodetector side; a cylindrical lens for imparting astigmatism to the reflected light reflected by the polarizing beam splitter; and a photodetector in which a light-receiving portion for CD is arranged in such a manner as to be offset from a light-receiving portion for DVD on a light-receiving surface so as to be capable of receiving convergent light passed through the cylindrical lens, wherein: an optical system is constructed such that a long-axis direction of an ellipse indicating a light spot on the optical disk becomes oblique with respect to a tracking direction, and the light-receiving portions of the photodetector are arranged on the light-receiving surface so as to match the optical system; the light-receiving portion for CD includes a CD-side main beam reflected-light receiving portion and a CD-side sub-beam reflected-light receiving portion; the light-receiving portion for DVD includes a DVD-side main beam reflected-light receiving portion and a DVD-side sub-beam reflected-light receiving portion; an interval between the DVD-side main beam reflected-light receiving portion and the DVD-side sub-beam reflected-light receiving portion is shorter than an interval between the CD-side main beam reflected-light receiving portion and the CD-side sub-beam reflected-light receiving portion; a size of the CD-side main beam reflected-light receiving portion is smaller than a size of the CD-side sub-beam reflected-light receiving portion; a size of the DVD-side main beam reflected-light receiving portion is smaller than a size of the DVD-side sub-beam reflected-light receiving portion; and the CD-side main beam reflected-light receiving portion is disposed at a position moved α·cos θ+β·cos 45° in an X direction and α·sin θ+β·sin 45° in a Y direction in relation to the DVD-side main beam reflected-light receiving portion wherein α is the interval between a DVD-side light emitting point and a CD-side light emitting point and β is a misalignment of the optical axis due to the cylindrical lens in a return path.