Patent ID: 8068388

Claim:
An optical pickup comprising: a light source for irradiating an optical disk with light; a lens for converging the light onto the optical disk; a photodetector having a plurality of detection regions for detecting light which is reflected from a signal surface of the optical disk and converting the light into an electrical signal; a hologram element having a hologram region for guiding the reflected light to the photodetector; and an optical shield for blocking at least a portion of light transmitted through a region of the hologram element other than the hologram region, wherein, the optical shield includes a light shielding portion for blocking the reflected light, and an aperture for allowing the reflected light to be transmitted therethrough; and the aperture of the optical shield is present, above an upper face of the hologram element, in a region including the hologram region, and a center position of the aperture is shifted from a center position of the hologram region; and the plurality of detection regions of the photodetector include tracking error signal detection regions and focus error signal detection regions; and the light shielding portion of the optical shield traverses lines extending from a convergence point of the light on the optical disk to center portions of the respective tracking error signal detection regions, and does not traverse at least one of lines extending from the convergence point of the light on the optical disk to center portions of the respective focus error signal detection regions.