Optical head device

Abstract

The invention discloses an optical head device having a diffraction grating element divided into a plurality of diffraction gratings have a substantially equal diffraction angle, a substantially equal optical utilization efficiency, and different focal distances of first order diffracted lights, each of the first order diffracted lights being produced from a reflected light from the recording medium, at the respective diffraction gratings and a photodetector positioned at a mid-position between two focal points produced when there occurs no focusing error, the photo-detecting means having a plurality of photo-detecting parts juxtaposed in a direction substantially orthogonal to an average diffracting direction of the diffraction grating element. The above arrangement enables to produce a small size optical head device and improve the detecting of focusing errors and tracking errors.