Patent ID: 8077581

Claim:
An optical pickup that irradiates an optical disc with a laser beam while the optical disc is rotated by a rotational driving mechanism and detects laser light reflected from the optical disc, the optical pickup comprising: a semiconductor laser device for generating at least two laser beams with different wavelengths; an objective lens for focusing the laser beams generated by the semiconductor laser device onto the optical disc; a beam splitter disposed on a first optical path defined from the semiconductor laser device to the optical disc, the objective lens disposed on the first optical path, and used for splitting the reflected laser light that returns from the optical disc through the objective lens; a photodetector for receiving the reflected laser light from the beam splitter and outputting at least one photodetection signal; a first optical element disposed on a second optical path defined from the beam splitter to the photodetector, wherein the objective lens is not disposed on the second optical path, having a variable first lens function for refracting the reflected laser light in a first direction in a plane perpendicular to an optical axis of the second optical path; a second optical element disposed on the second optical path, having a variable second lens function for refracting the reflected laser light at least in a second direction different from the first direction in the plane perpendicular to the optical axis of the second optical path; and an optical element driving circuit for varying the first lens function of the first optical element and the second lens function of the second optical element.