Objective lens for high-density optical focusing, and optical pickup using the same

Abstract

A high-density focusing objective lens having a high numerical aperture (NA), which can be easily manufactured by an existing technique, and an optical pickup using the objective lens for high-density recording. The objective lens includes a first transmitting portion placed at a relatively near-axis region from the optical axis to divergently transmit an incident light beam; a first reflecting portion to divergently reflect the incident light beam, the first reflecting portion faces the first transmitting portion; a second reflecting portion, formed at a relatively far-axis region around the first transmitting portion that focuses and reflects the light reflected from the first reflecting portion; and a second transmitting portion, formed at a relatively far-axis region around the first reflecting portion, that refracts and transmits the light beam focused by the second reflecting portion as a peripheral light beam, wherein the maximum angle &agr; between the optical axis and the peripheral light beam satisfies the condition of 30° ≦&agr;≦65°. The optical pickup further includes the previously mentioned objective lens as a second objective lens, which is optionally placed into the optical path between a first objective lens and an optical medium. As a result, the NA of the objective lens unit can be increased up to 0.85 while the working distance d is maintained to be 0.2 mm.