US 7,586,827 B2
Optical pickup apparatus
Takuji Hatano, Suita (Japan); Katsuya Yagi, Hino (Japan); Yuichi Atarashi, Hachioji (Japan); and Yuichiro Ori, Moriyama (Japan)
Assigned to Konica Minolta Opto, Inc., Hachioji-shi (Japan)
Filed on Oct. 25, 2004, as Appl. No. 10/972,970.
Claims priority of application No. 2003-366377 (JP), filed on Oct. 27, 2003.
Prior Publication US 2005/0111337 A1, May 26, 2005
Int. Cl. G11B 7/12 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 369—112.16  [369/112.21; 369/112.22; 369/44.23] 27 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An optical pickup apparatus comprising:
a first semiconductor laser source which emits a first laser beam in a wavelength band of 405 nm having an elliptic light intensity distribution;
a second semiconductor laser source which emits a second laser beam in a wavelength band of 650 nm;
a beam shaping element which shapes the light intensity distribution of the first laser beam emitted from the first semiconductor laser source;
a light path combiner which combines a light path of the first laser beam shaped by the beam shaping element and a light path of the second laser beam emitted from the second semiconductor laser source;
a polarizing beam splitter having a polarized light separation film in contact with the air, the polarizing beam splitter reflecting the first and second laser beams having a combined light path combined by the light path combiner on the polarized light separation film;
an objective lens which focuses the first and second laser beams reflected on the polarized light separation film, onto an optical information recording medium;
an optical filter which satisfies a following condition with regard to a part of a s-polarized light component of the first and second laser beams transmitted through the polarizing beam splitter,
TS655<TS405
where
TS405 represents a transmittance (%) of the s-polarized light component with a wavelength of 405 nm, and
TS655 represents a transmittance (%) of the s-polarized light component with a wavelength of 655 nm; and
a detector which detects an intensity of the first and second laser beams transmitted through the optical filter.