Patent ID: 7139234

Claim:
An optical pickup for performing at least one of recording and reproduction of bits of information onto and from an information recording medium by using a single polarized optical beam having a single polarizing direction, comprising: a polarization converting unit configured to convert the single polarized optical beam to plural polarized optical beams having a plurality of polarizing directions; a converting and radiating unit configured to convert polarization modes of the plural polarized optical beams to a polarization mode suitable for one of the recording and the reproduction to produce polarization-converted optical beams, every polarizing direction, and to radiate the polarization-converted optical beams to the information recording medium; a mode returning unit configured to return polarization modes of the polarization-converted optical beams reflected from the information recording medium, to the same polarization mode as that of the plural polarized optical beams and to produce plural polarized reflected optical beams; and a polarization returning unit configured to return polarization modes of the plural polarized reflected optical beams to the same polarization mode as the single polarized optical mode.