Patent ID: 7826334

Claim:
A reproducing apparatus comprising reproducing light illuminating means for illuminating reproducing light on an optical recording medium having a plurality of recording layers, said optical recording medium including a n-th (n≧1) recording layer at least having a substrate and a semi-reflective layer for reflecting and transmitting the incident light, formed on said substrate, a (n+1)th recording layer at least having another substrate and a reflecting layer for reflecting the light, incident thereon, formed on said another substrate, and a light condensing layer for collecting the light incident through said n-th recording layer on said (n+1)th recording layer; and light detection means for detecting the light which is the reproducing light illuminated by said reproducing light illuminating means, said reproducing light then being incident on said optical recording medium so as to be then reflected back responsive to said incidence; said light detection means detecting the superimposed light composed of the light, which is the reproducing light illuminated by said reproducing light illuminating means and incident on said n-th recording layer of said optical recording medium so as to be reflected back from said semi-reflective layer, and light transmitted through said semi-reflective layer and collected by the light condensing layer to fall on the (n+1)th layer so as to be then reflected by said reflecting layer.