Patent ID: 7450486

Claim:
An optical pickup which performs at least one of recording, reproduction and deletion of information on or from at least three optical recording media having respective substrate thicknesses of t 1 , t 2 , and t 3 , wherein t 1 ≦t 2 <t 3 , said pickup comprising: a light source of a wavelength λ 1 for the optical recording medium which has the substrate thickness of t 1 ; a light source of a wavelength λ 2 for the optical recording medium which has the substrate thickness of t 2 ; and a light source of a wavelength λ 3 for the optical recording medium which has the substrate thickness of t 3 , wherein λ 1 <λ 2 <λ 3 ; an object lens which condenses light from the light sources; and a wavelength selectable deflecting element which emits a zero-order deflected light beam when light from the light source of the wavelength λ 1 or the light source of the wavelength λ 2 is incident, and which emits a 1st-order deflected light beam when a light beam from the light source of the wavelength λ 3 is incident, wherein the wavelength selectable deflecting element emits a 1st-order deflected light beam that is scattered to avoid overlapping a focused light spot when light having the wavelength λ 3 is incident.