Abstract

Magneto-optical disk drives have been put to practical use for coded data file and digital video file applications. However, in order that they are more widely used as personal computer peripherals or portable video disk recorders, optical heads need to be more compact. A hybrid chip integration technology for a laser diode, a photodiode, etc. is effective for this purpose¹⁾. The application of a polarizing holographic optical element (HOE) also meets this requirement, because it can possess many optical functions, such as polarizing beam splitter and error signal detection²⁾. This paper proposes a newly designed compact optical head module for magneto-optical disks, combining the hybrid chip integration technology and the polarizing HOE. The module size is ϕ10mm × t11mm.

© 1994 Optical Society of America