Pioneer Corporation

Makoto Sato

Masakazu Ogasawara

Takuma Yanagisawa

Ikuya Kikuchi

Masahiro Kato

Eiji Muramatsu

Takanori Maeda

Katsuhiro Koike

Takanori Ochiai

Ryo Izuta

Masayuki Iwasaki

Sakashi Ohtaki

Yoshitsugu Araki

Seiichi Ohsawa

Masaharu Nakano

An optical device includes a light receiving unit that receives reflected light reflected from an object by emitted light emitted from a light emitting unit, an optical element that guides incident light including the reflected light and ambient light from a region including the object to a position on the light receiving unit according to a component included in the incident light, and a detection device that detects the reflected light based on a distribution of received light intensity on the light receiving unit. A light receiving element of the light receiving unit is arranged in a second direction intersecting a first direction in which the incident light is dispersed by the optical element.

Optical device

Provided is an optical device capable of suppressing variations in the range for scanning light. This optical device comprises: a light source that emits a laser beam; a MEMS mirror that scans the laser beam toward a predetermined range; and a diffraction grating that guides the laser beam to the MEMS mirror by guiding the laser beam in a direction corresponding to the wavelength thereof. The optical device also comprises an MEMS control unit that performs control such that, by employing a change in the optical path of the laser beam caused through the diffraction grating by a change in the wavelength of the laser beam, variations in the scanning range of the laser beam by the MEMS mirror are suppressed.

An optical device comprises: a line sensor having a plurality of light reception elements that receive incident light including reflection light resulting from laser light having been emitted from a light source and reflected by an object, and including ambient light; a diffraction grating that guides the incident light to the plurality of light reception elements by diffracting the incident light to a direction depending on the wavelength; and a control unit that detects the reflection light on the basis of the light reception amounts of the light reception elements. The diffraction grating is configured to guide, to one of the plurality of light reception elements, a wavelength within a predetermined range that includes the wavelength of the laser light emitted from the light source.

A pickup device comprising an irradiation optical system including an objective lens to focus a ray bundle on a track of a recording surface of an optical recording medium to form a light spot, and a detection optical system including a photo detector to receive return light reflected from the light spot via the objective lens and perform photoelectric conversion and controls said objective lens in position according to electrical signals produced through operations on outputs of said photo detector.

Pickup device

A light deflecting device is a light deflecting device for deflecting an incident light beam and has: a coarse motion light deflecting device which has an optical system having at least two conjugate points on an optical axis and deflects the light beam which has passed through one conjugate point and has entered the optical system as an output light beam which passes through the other conjugate point and has a deflection angle with respect to the optical axis while changing its transmitting direction; and a fine motion light deflecting device which is arranged in the optical system, applies a deflection to the incident light beam, and changes the deflection angle of the output light beam to a second deflection angle different from the deflection angle for a predetermined time.

Light deflecting device and hologram device

A fabrication method of a multilayer optical recording medium having a plurality of recording layers, comprises a step of preparing an optical recording medium having at least one record area; a write-position mark generating step of recording write-position marks in the record area beforehand; a step of preparing an optical system including a common objective lens to focus a data recording beam and a position mark recording beam on different positions in a thickness direction of the record area; a first data writing step of writing data between the write-position marks with following the write-position marks by the data recording beam; a position mark recording step of, in parallel with the first data writing step, recording new write-position marks in the record area by the position mark recording beam; and a second data writing step of writing data between the new write-position marks with following the new write-position marks by the data recording beam.

Fabrication method of multilayer optical record medium and recording apparatus for multilayered optical record medium

An optical pickup apparatus reads an information signal recorded on a recording surface of an optical disk along a track by projecting a light beam. Said optical pickup apparatus has: an objective lens for converging said light beam onto said recording surface; an objective lens moving device for moving said objective lens in a radial direction of said optical disk; and a divisional photosensing device for receiving return light reflected by said optical disk, in a plurality of divided regions. Said divisional photosensing device has: a first divisional photosensing device for dividing a first region including both edge portions in said radial direction of said return light, in two divided areas in said radial direction; a second divisional photosensing device for receiving a second region including both edge portions in a direction which perpendicularly crosses said radial direction of said return light, in two divided areas in said radial direction; and a third divisional photosensing device for receiving a third region including an almost center portion of said return light, in two divided areas in said radial direction.

Optical pickup apparatus

A hologram recording method is a method of recording a hologram, on a hologram recording apparatus that records information by forming a diffraction grating through oppositely irradiating the signal beam and the reference beam to the hologram record carrier. The hologram recording method includes a step of focusing the reference beam at a first numerical aperture from a first effective diameter by means of the reference-beam objective lens, a step of separating the reference beam in a part on the optical axis and a neighborhood thereof to thereby produce from the reference beam a recording reference beam to passes through the hologram record carrier at a second numerical aperture smaller than the first numerical aperture from a second effective diameter smaller than the first effective diameter by means of the reference-beam objective lens of the reference-beam optical system, and allowing the recording reference beam to exit coaxially to the reference beam, and a step of not allowing only the recording reference beam to exit toward the hologram record carrier by means of the signal-beam optical system.

Method for recording and reproducing a hologram and apparatus therefor

An optical pickup projects laser beams having the first to the third wavelengths, in response to the type of a recording medium which is an object to which recording or reproduction is to be performed, and reflecting light from the recording medium is received by a light-detecting element. In order to reduce the sizes of the optical pickup, light of the second and the third wavelengths is generated by a single dual-wavelength light source, and reflecting light of all the wavelengths is to be received by the single light-detecting element. A hologram element giving different optical effects to light of each wavelength is arranged between the light irradiating means and the light-detecting element. Thus, appropriate information recording and reproduction can be performed by using light of each wavelength.

Optical pickup

A disk reproducing apparatus for reproducing a disk that is any one of three kinds of disks, BD, DVD and CD, employing a BD objective lens, correct only aberration occurring inside the effective diameter of DVD, and leaves aberration outside the effective diameter, when reproducing DVD. Likewise, the disk reproducing apparatus corrects only aberration occurring inside the effective diameter of CD, and leaves aberration outside the effective diameter, when reproducing CD.

Aberration correcting device and optical recording medium reproducing apparatus

An optical pickup records information on an optical recording medium and retrieves information from the optical recording medium by radiating a light beam on the optical recording medium. The optical pickup includes a light source which emits the light beam. The optical pickup also includes an object lens which directs the convergent light beam to a recording layer of the optical recording medium. The optical pickup further includes an aberration correction lens assembly located between the light source and the object lens. The aberration correction lens assembly includes at least one movable lens which is movable in an optical axis direction. The aberration correction lens assembly moves the movable lens to convert the light beam to a convergent light beam or a divergent light beam so as to correct spherical aberration. A distance between a principal plane of the aberration correction lens assembly on a light emergent side and a principal plane of the object lens falls within a range determined in accordance with a numerical aperture of the object lens, a focal length of the aberration correction lens assembly on the light emergent side, and a focal length of the object lens.

Optical pickup including aberration correction lens assembly

In an optical pickup apparatus which includes at least a laser light source and an object lens and can apply a laser beam to different types of optical discs, an aberration correction liquid crystal device is placed on the optical axis of the laser beam emitted from the laser light source. The aberration correction liquid crystal device includes a first electrode section being placed on the side of the laser light source and having a first electrode pattern for correcting aberration concerning a first optical disc, a second electrode section being placed on the side of the optical disc and having a second electrode pattern for correcting aberration concerning a second optical disc different from the first optical disc in type, and liquid crystal being sandwiched between the first and second electrode sections.

Aberration correction liquid crystal device and optical pickup apparatus

An objective lens for converging light onto an information recording medium includes a refracting interface for converging an incident light into a convergent light, and a refractive index varying member disposed between the refracting interface and the information recording medium, and having a refractive index that is varied according to an externally applied voltage.

Objective lens and optical pickup device

An aberration correcting unit is provided for correcting an aberration of a light beam radiated onto an object to be detected and then reflected from the object. This unit comprises an aberration correcting device comprising a first corrector configured to correct the aberration of the light beam radiated onto the object; and a second corrector configured to correct the aberration of the light beam reflected from the object and to divide the reflected light beam into a plurality of light beams. The aberration correcting unit further comprises a first driver configured to drive the first corrector and a second driver configured to drive the second corrector.

Growing community of inventors

Tsurugashima, Japan

Makoto Sato