JP2502483B2 - Optical head device - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical head device for irradiating an information recording surface of an information carrier with light to detect or record information, and more particularly to an optical head device which is compact and lightweight and suitable for mass production. is there.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an optical head device has been constructed, for example, as shown in FIG. Here, the divergent light beam emitted from the laser light source 1 enters the collimator lens 2 to become a parallel light beam, and enters the polarization beam splitter 3. Here, the polarization beam splitter 3 transmits almost 100% of linearly polarized light having a vibration surface in a specific direction, and has a vibration surface in a direction orthogonal to this. This polarization beam splitter 3
Transmitted through the λ / 4 plate 4 to become circularly polarized light, and is condensed by the objective lens 5 on the information recording surface 7 provided on the information carrier substrate 6 to form a spot having a spot diameter of about 1 μm. I do. The light beam reflected by the information recording surface 7 passes through the objective lens 5 to become a parallel light beam, passes through the λ / 4 plate 4, becomes linearly polarized light whose direction of the vibrating surface is orthogonal to that at the time of incidence, and becomes a polarized light beam. The light enters the splitter 3 again. Here, the polarizing beam splitter 3 functions as a light splitter due to the above-described characteristics, reflects the light reflected from the information recording surface 7 and separates it from the incident light, and converges via the sensor lens 8 and the cylindrical lens 9. The light is guided to the photodetector 10 as a light beam.

When recording information using such an optical head device, the laser light source 1 is driven in accordance with an information signal to modulate the light incident on the information recording surface 7. When detecting information, unmodulated light is applied to the information recording surface 7 on which information is recorded by uneven pits or changes in reflectance, and reflected light modulated by the recorded information is subjected to light detection. The information is detected by the detector 10 and the information is reproduced.

In an optical head device, information is recorded at a high density on an information recording surface, and in order to detect the information recorded at a high density, an automatic light source for constantly focusing light from a light source on the information recording surface. Focusing is taking place. The apparatus of FIG. 22 shows an example using a known astigmatism method. The cylindrical lens 9 causes astigmatism in the reflected light. or,
The light detector 10 has its light receiving surface divided into four parts, and when the information recording surface 9 is at the in-focus position of the objective lens 5, that is, when the light spot has a predetermined size of about 1 μm on the information recording surface 7. Are arranged so as to produce a circular light amount distribution on the photodetector 10 when the aperture is narrowed down to As a result, when the information recording surface 7 moves back and forth from the focal position of the objective lens 5, the light amount distribution on the photodetector 10 changes into an oval shape whose major axis directions are orthogonal to each other. Therefore, a focus error signal is obtained by comparing the output of each light receiving surface of the photodetector 10 and detecting a change in the light amount distribution. Auto-focusing is performed by moving in the direction.

However, the above-described conventional optical head device requires a sensor lens and the like, which has been an obstacle to miniaturization and cost reduction of the device. Also, in order to obtain a good signal by the photodetector, the optical element such as the sensor lens must be placed at an accurate position and angle with respect to the optical axis of the detection light, which complicates assembly adjustment.

An optical head device that does not require the sensor lens and the like is proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho 59-8145.
In this device, the junction surface of the prism type beam splitter as described above is a curved surface, and a concave mirror has a condensing function. However, this device has a drawback that it is not suitable for mass production because the prisms having the convex surface or the concave surface must be individually polished and assembled when the beam splitter is manufactured. Furthermore, a polarization-dependent reflective film is provided on the joint surface of the beam splitter. If the joint surface is a spherical surface or a cylindrical surface, the angle of incidence of light on this reflective film differs depending on the location, and the polarization characteristics change. Resulting in.
Therefore, strict polarization dependence cannot be expected in such a configuration.

On the other hand, JP-A-56-57013 discloses a method in which a diffraction grating is provided in an optical path between a light source and an objective lens, and the light reflected from the information carrier by the diffraction grating is separated from the incident light. An optical head device leading to a detector has been proposed. This diffraction grating has a lens function, generates astigmatism in a light beam going to the photodetector, and detects a focusing error with the photodetector using a so-called astigmatism method.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to further improve the optical head device using the above-mentioned diffraction to achieve miniaturization and thinning. Moreover, it is intended to use light efficiently.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The above object of the present invention is to irradiate an information recording surface with a light beam emitted from a light source and to provide an optical splitter disposed in an optical path from the light source to the information recording surface. In the optical head device that guides the reflected light flux from the information recording surface to the photodetector to detect or record information, the light splitter is composed of a parallel plate and a diffraction grating, By setting the diffraction grating to be P-polarized and providing a λ / 4 plate in the optical path between the diffraction grating and the information recording surface, the reflected light beam from the information recording surface is S-polarized. Is incident on the diffraction grating, and the S-polarized light is diffracted by the diffraction grating to become diffracted light which is guided through the parallel plate and enters the photodetector.

[0010]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of an optical head device of the present invention using a diffraction grating. Semiconductor laser 1
The light emitted from 1 is converted into a parallel light beam by the collimator lens 12 and enters the light splitter 13. This light splitter 1
Reference numeral 3 is composed of two parallel flat plates 14 and 16 and a diffraction grating 15 sandwiched therebetween. This diffraction grating has a diffraction efficiency of almost 100% for S-polarized light,
It is formed to be almost 0% for polarized light.
The light from the semiconductor laser 11 is set to be P-polarized light with respect to the light splitter 13. Therefore, this incident light is transmitted almost without being diffracted and goes to the λ / 4 plate 17. The light passing through the λ / 4 plate 17 becomes circularly polarized light, and is condensed by the objective lens 18 onto the information recording surface 20 via the information carrier substrate 19 to a spot having a diameter of about 1 μm. The light beam reflected by the information recording surface 20 passes through the objective lens 18 to become a parallel light beam, and again passes through the λ / 4 plate 17 to become S-polarized light which vibrates in a direction orthogonal to the time of incidence and becomes a light splitter. It is incident on 13. The reflected light 21 is diffracted by the diffraction grating 15 in the light splitter 13 to become a diffracted light 22, propagates through the parallel plate while repeating total reflection, and enters the photodetector 23. In this way, by utilizing the polarization characteristics of the diffraction grating 15, it is possible to improve the light utilization efficiency. Here, information is recorded by driving the semiconductor laser 11 in accordance with the information signal and modulating the light incident on the information recording surface 20. When detecting information, the information recording surface 20 is irradiated with unmodulated light, and the photodetector 23 detects the reflected light that has been modulated according to the information recorded therein to reproduce the information.

FIG. 2 shows the light splitter 13 of FIG. 1 as viewed from the semiconductor laser side. The diffraction grating of this embodiment has a lens function having power in the plane of FIG.
Are condensed and guided to the photodetector 23.

In the present invention, the lens action refers to changing the wavefront shape of light incident on the diffraction grating and diffracting the light to diverge or converge the diffracted light, and the function of the diffraction grating such as a sensor lens or a cylindrical lens. Are to be held together. The light detector 23 has a light receiving surface divided into four as shown in the figure. Further, the light amount distribution on the light receiving surface changes according to the focused state of the spot on the information recording surface. For example, when the focal position of the objective lens 18 coincides with the recording surface 20, the reflected light 21 becomes parallel light, and the diffracted light 22 becomes a solid line in FIG. Incident. Further, when the objective lens 18 is too close to or far from the recording surface, the reflected light 21 becomes divergent light or focused light, and the diffracted light 22 becomes like a dashed line or a broken line in FIG. 2, respectively. , 22c or 22a on the photodetector 23, respectively. The principle of detecting a focus error signal using such a change in the light beam shape will be described in detail below.

FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 show a quadrant photodetector 23.
FIG. 4 shows the in-focus state, and FIGS. 3 and 5 show the out-of-focus state. Here, 23a, 23b, 2
Reference numerals 3c and 23d denote divided light receiving surfaces, respectively, and the shape of the incident light beam changes to 22a, 22b, and 22c as described above. When the outputs from the light-receiving surfaces 23a, 23b, 23c, and 23d are Ia, Ib, Ic, and Id, respectively, a differential amplifier is obtained by performing an operation of (Ib + Ic)-(Ia + Id) in the electrical system shown in FIG. A focus error signal as shown in FIG. 7 is obtained at the output terminal 25 of 24. In FIG. 7, the horizontal axis indicates the distance (focus error) between the objective lens and the recording surface when the focus position is set to zero, and the vertical axis indicates the signal output. According to the obtained focus error signal, the objective lens 18 or the entire optical head is moved with respect to the disk along the optical axis of the incident light through an actuator (not shown), whereby autofocusing becomes possible.

Next, the principle of auto tracking in the embodiment of FIG. 1 will be described. Assuming that a groove 19a is formed in the substrate 19 of the information carrier as shown in FIGS. 8, 9 and 10, the incident light beam is
Is collected in the vicinity of. Here, FIG. 9 shows a state in which a spot is formed on a target groove, and FIGS. 8 and 10 show a state in which a spot is formed on the right or left side of the groove, respectively. The luminous flux reflected by the recording surface 20 on the substrate 19 is formed by a groove 19a.
Includes tracking information due to diffraction or scattering at When the reflected light is received by the photodetector 23 in FIG.
The amounts of light received by 3a, 23b, 23c, and 23d change as shown in FIGS. 11, 12, and 13, respectively, according to the states of FIGS. 8, 9, and 10 described above. Therefore, by performing the operation of (Ia + Ib)-(Ic + Id) in the electric system as shown in FIG. 14, a tracking error signal as shown in FIG. 15 is obtained at the output terminal 27 of the differential amplifier 26. In FIG. 15, the horizontal axis represents tracking error and the vertical axis represents signal output. According to the obtained tracking error signal, a tracking actuator (not shown) is driven, and the objective lens is moved vertically to the optical axis. Although the case where the groove as the guide track is formed in advance on the substrate 19 has been described here, when the information recorded on the recording surface 20 is detected, the information is recorded even if such a groove is not provided. Depending on the positional relationship between the signal sequence (recording track) and the spot,
An imbalance occurs in the light amount distribution on the photodetector 23. Therefore, even in such a case, as shown in FIG.
A tracking signal is similarly obtained by calculating the output of each light receiving surface of No. 3.

As can be seen from the above-mentioned embodiments, in the present invention, since the light splitter itself has a lens function,
The optical head device can be configured in a small size without using a sensor lens or the like. In addition, since the optical adjustment only needs to be performed between the light splitter and the photodetector, it is very simple.

16 and 17 schematically show the structure of the diffraction grating used in the present invention. FIG. 16 is a partial sectional view of a light splitter 31 using a volume diffraction grating. The diffraction grating 33 is composed of substrates 32 and 3 made of parallel plates.
It is sandwiched between 4 and is composed of a layer 35 having a low refractive index and a layer 36 having a high refractive index. Incident light from information recording surface 3
7 is diffracted by the diffraction grating 33 to become a diffracted light 38. When the diffraction grating 33 substantially satisfies the Bragg condition with respect to the incident light 37, most of the energy of the diffracted light 38 is concentrated in a specific diffraction direction. In addition, the incident light 37
When the angle formed by and the diffracted light 38 is close to a right angle, the diffraction efficiency is greatly affected by the polarization state of the light beam, and the P-polarized light has a transmittance of 100% and the S-polarized light has a diffraction efficiency close to 100%. Have.

The diffraction grating 33 as shown in FIG. 16 is manufactured using a volume hologram photosensitive material such as dichromated gelatin. For example, the above-mentioned light-sensitive material is formed on a substrate to have a uniform thickness, a light beam from the same laser is split, and then an interference fringe generated by overlapping at a predetermined angle is exposed,
Further development processing forms a diffraction grating.

FIG. 17 shows an optical splitter 4 used in the present invention.
It is a fragmentary sectional view showing other examples of composition of 1. Parallel plate 4
The diffraction grating 44 sandwiched between the reflection films 6 and 43 has an appropriate reflection characteristic, for example, a reflection film 6 having a polarization beam splitter characteristic.
0 has a shape sandwiching unevenness. Therefore, for linearly polarized light 56 incident as P-polarized light, the diffraction grating 4
4 acts as a mere parallel plate without any function, and acts as a reflecting mirror for linearly polarized light 57 incident as S-polarized light to generate diffracted light 58.

The diffraction grating 44 as shown in FIG. 17 can be manufactured by exposing a relief type photosensitive material such as a photoresist to a grating pattern through an appropriate optical system and developing the same. In addition, it can also be manufactured by mechanically processing a mold and transferring it to a layer serving as a substrate by injection, compression, thin layer copying, or the like, or by directly cutting the substrate.

Although the diffraction grating used in the present invention diffracts while diverging or converging light, a diffraction grating having such a lens function can be easily obtained as generally known in hologram lenses and the like. I can do things. For example, as shown in FIG. 18, by forming each inclined surface of the diffraction grating into a conical shape centered on a predetermined axis, it is possible to obtain a diffraction grating having power in the plane including the array direction of the grating. When the grating is formed by gradually changing the pitch, the diffraction angle varies depending on the location, and a diffraction grating having power in a plane including incident light and diffracted light can be obtained. Naturally, these may be combined to give a two-dimensional lens effect.

FIG. 19 is a view for explaining a method of manufacturing a diffraction grating as shown in FIG. 18 by using optical means. In FIG. 19, parallel light fluxes 61 and 62 emitted from the same laser light source and divided by an optical system (not shown) are provided on conical mirrors 63 and 64 sharing a rotation axis 65, respectively.
Incident parallel to. The two light beams reflected by each of the conical mirrors become a conical wavefront having a focal line on the rotation axis 65 and enter the hologram sensitive material 67 on the substrate 66. At this time, the interference fringes generated in the region 68 on the photosensitive material surface are three-dimensionally conical with the rotation axis 65 as the center of rotation. Therefore, by developing the exposed interference fringes in this manner, an analysis grating having a focusing action as shown in FIG. 18 is formed.

The optical splitter used in the present invention can be easily manufactured by collectively processing a plurality of substrates on a large substrate and cutting them out. Also, as described above, in the case of manufacturing by transfer from a matrix, it is particularly suitable for mass production and the manufacturing cost can be reduced. Further, since the diffraction grating according to the present invention can realize variously set focusing or diverging actions of diffracted light without causing difficulty in manufacturing, it is possible to obtain the same action as an aspherical lens at low cost. I can. Further, in the light splitter of the present invention, since the incident light is incident on the inclined surface of the diffraction grating at a constant angle regardless of the location, the incident position of the light beam is different from that of the conventional example in which the joint surface of the prism has a curvature. There is no difference in polarization characteristics depending on the type.

Next, another embodiment of the optical head device of the present invention will be described. In the present invention, a diffraction grating is arranged in the optical path of a divergent light beam directed from a light source to a collimator lens, and the diffraction grating functions as a concave lens for reflected light from an information recording surface with respect to the embodiments described above. It is characterized by the fact that it is assumed. With this feature, the present invention can detect a focus error or a tracking error with high sensitivity.

FIG. 20 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. The P-polarized light beam from the semiconductor laser 71 passes through the light splitter 72 as it is, and becomes a parallel light beam by the collimator lens 76. The light splitter 72 comprises parallel plates 73 and 75 and a diffraction grating 74 sandwiched between them. This diffraction grating 74 exhibits almost 100% diffraction efficiency with respect to S-polarized light as in the first embodiment. Nearly zero for polarized light
% Diffraction efficiency is shown. The light beam from the collimator lens 76 is circularly polarized by the λ / 4 plate 77, and is condensed on the information recording surface 80 via the information carrier substrate 79 by the objective lens 78. The light beam reflected by the information recording surface 80 travels backward in the incident optical path, passes through the λ / 4 plate 77, becomes S-polarized light, is diffracted by the diffraction grating 74 of the light splitter 72, and is guided to the photodetector 81. . Also in this embodiment, recording and reproduction of information are performed in the same manner as in the previous embodiment.

Here, the diffraction grating 74 exhibits the function of a concave lens which is strong against the reflected light flux, and extends the focal length of the collimator lens 76 to guide the diffracted light to the photodetector 81.
According to the present embodiment, with this configuration, the spot on the information recording surface is projected on the photodetector 81 in an enlarged form, and the light quantity distribution on the photodetector 81 is large with respect to the focus shift or tracking shift of the record carrier. I am trying to change. That is, a so-called tele-type sensor lens system combining concave and convex lenses is formed by the collimator lens 76 and the lens action of the diffraction grating 74, and the entire length is made compact. Then, a highly sensitive focus error detection or tracking error detection is performed. Is possible. In the present embodiment, any known method can be used for focus error detection. For example, when the astigmatism method described as the related art is used, the four-divided photodetector By making the diffraction grating 74 also have the function of a cylindrical lens in addition to the concave lens described above,
The configuration can be simplified.

FIG. 21 is a diagram for explaining an example of an optical system for producing the diffraction grating used in the above embodiment. A light beam emitted from a laser light source 82 such as an argon laser is reflected by a mirror 83, and then reflected by a beam splitter 84.
Will be divided. The light beam reflected by the beam splitter 84 is reflected by a mirror 95 and then reflected by a microscope objective lens 9.
6, the light beam width is widened by the imaging lens 97, and the light beam is focused by the imaging lens 97. Then, the light beam 99 having the necessary spherical aberration and coma aberration is formed by the inclined parallel plate 98. Incident on. on the other hand,
The light beam transmitted through the beam splitter 84 is reflected by a mirror 85, and thereafter, is passed through a microscope objective lens 86 and an imaging lens 87.
, A convergent light flux, and astigmatism is given by the cylindrical lens 88. The light beam 89 is incident on the hologram photosensitive material 101 and interferes with the above-described light beam 99 to expose the photosensitive material to interference fringes. By developing this photosensitive material, a diffraction grating as in the second embodiment can be obtained. As described above, since the light beams 89 and 99 are provided with the optimal aberration, the obtained diffraction grating satisfies the Bragg condition over the entire surface in the use state and exhibits desired characteristics.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications are conceivable. For example, in the embodiment, the light beam from the light splitter is directly guided to the photodetector. However, the light beam is applied to the photodetector by the combination of the lens function of the diffraction grating and the lens provided at the end face or outside of the light splitter. May be led. The present invention can also be used for reading magneto-optical recording.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention, in the conventional optical head device, the light splitter is composed of the parallel plate and the diffraction grating, and the light beam emitted from the light source is directed to the diffraction grating. It is set to be polarized light, and by providing a λ / 4 plate in the optical path between the diffraction grating and the information recording surface, the reflected light flux from the information recording surface becomes S-polarized light and enters the diffraction grating. The S-polarized light is diffracted by the diffraction grating to become diffracted light, which is guided through the parallel plate and is incident on the photodetector. 2) It has the effect of sufficiently improving the light utilization efficiency.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a view of the light splitter of FIG. 1 as viewed from a semiconductor laser side.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a change in a light amount distribution on a photodetector due to a focus error.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a change in a light amount distribution on a photodetector due to a focus error.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a change in a light amount distribution on a photodetector due to a focus error.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an electric system for focus error detection.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a focus error signal.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a position variation of a light spot on a recording surface.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a position variation of a light spot on a recording surface.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a position variation of a light spot on a recording surface.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a change in light amount on a photodetector due to a position change of a light spot.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing changes in the amount of light on the photodetector due to changes in the position of the light spot.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a change in light amount on a photodetector due to a position change of a light spot.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an electric system for tracking error detection.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a tracking error signal.

FIG. 16 is a schematic sectional view showing a configuration example of a diffraction grating used in the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a configuration example of a diffraction grating used in the present invention.

FIG. 18 is a perspective view showing a state of an inclined surface of a diffraction grating.

FIG. 19 illustrates an example of a method for manufacturing a diffraction grating.

FIG. 20 is a schematic view showing an embodiment of the optical head device of the present invention.

FIG. 21 is a schematic diagram illustrating a method for manufacturing a diffraction grating used in the example of FIG.

FIG. 22 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration of a conventional optical head device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 semiconductor laser 13 optical splitter 14 parallel plate 15 diffraction grating 16 parallel plate 12 collimator lens 17 λ / 4 plate 18 objective lens 19 substrate 20 information recording surface 23 photodetector

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Kiyonobu Endo 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Hiroaki Hoshi 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon (72) Inventor Yasuo Nakamura 1248 Shimokagemori, Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture Canon Electronics Inc. (72) Inventor Dai Osawa 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (56 ) Reference JP 53-100808 (JP, A) JP 56-57013 (JP, A) JP 57-155508 (JP, A) JP 58-72104 (JP, A) JP 58-130448 (JP, A) JP 58-220249 (JP, A) JP 59-58637 (JP, A) JP 59-231736 (JP, A) JP 59-33636 (JP, A)

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A light beam emitted from a light source is applied to an information recording surface, and a light beam reflected from the information recording surface is detected by an optical splitter arranged in an optical path from the light source to the information recording surface. In the optical head device for detecting or recording information by using a parallel plate and a diffraction grating, the light beam emitted from the light source is P-polarized with respect to the diffraction grating. And by providing a λ / 4 plate in the optical path between the diffraction grating and the information recording surface, the reflected light flux from the information recording surface becomes S-polarized light and enters the diffraction grating. An optical head device characterized in that S-polarized light is diffracted by the diffraction grating to become diffracted light, which is guided in the parallel plate and enters the photodetector.