Optical pickup device and objective lens used in the same

1. An optical element for use in an optical pickup apparatus in which information recording and/or reproducing can be conducted by converging a light flux having a wavelength λ 1 from a first light source through a protective substrate having a thickness t 1 on an information recording medium of a first optical information recording medium or can be conducted by converging a light flux having a wavelength λ 2 (λ 1 <λ 2 ) from a second light source through a protective substrate having a thickness t 2 (t 1 <t 2 ) on an information recording medium of a second optical information recording medium, the optical element comprising:

an optical functional surface including a common region used for conducting information recording and/or reproducing for both of the first optical information recording medium and the second optical information recording medium, and

the common region comprising an aspheric surface to cause a refractive function such that a spherical aberration on the first optical information recording medium becomes over corrected or have no aberration and a spherical aberration on the second optical information recording medium becomes over corrected on the second optical information recording medium,

wherein the aspheric surface is separated around the center of an optical axis to form plural ring-shaped zones and each aspheric surface of neighboring ring-shaped zones of the plural ring-shaped zones is displaced to each other in a direction of an optical axis so as to cause an optical path difference obtained by multiplying a predetermined wavelength λs (λs=λ 1 ) with almost an integer.

2. The optical element of claim 1 , wherein a displacement between the ring-shaped zones makes both of the spherical aberration on the first optical information recording medium and the spherical aberration on the second optical information recording medium to be optimum.

3. The optical element of claim 1 , wherein a light ray, which is emitted from the first light source and passes a point positioned farthest from the optical axis on a refracting surface region used for conducting information recording and/or reproducing for both of the first optical information recording medium and the second optical information recording medium, is adapted by the aspherical surface so as to intersect with the optical axis in a region located within 0.20 mm from a position at which a paraxial ray intersects with the optical axis.

4. The optical element of claim 1 , wherein the number of the ring-shaped zones in the optical path difference providing structure is 3 to 7.

5. The optical element of claim 1 , wherein the optical functional surface includes a peripheral region which is located on a peripheral side of the common region and is used for conducting information recording and/or reproducing for the first optical information recording medium, and wherein the peripheral region is formed by a refractive surface.

6. The optical element of claim 1 , wherein the optical functional surface includes a peripheral region which is located on a peripheral side of the common region and is used for conducting information recording and/or reproducing for the first optical information recording medium, and wherein the peripheral region has a second refractive function to optimize the spherical aberration on the first optical information recording medium, and the peripheral region has a second optical path difference providing structure in which plural ring-shaped zones are separated around the center of an optical axis, neighboring ring-shaped zones are displaced to each other in a direction of an optical axis so as to cause an optical path difference obtained by multiplying a predetermined wavelength λ 1 with almost an integer, and the plural ring-shaped zones are formed in such a way that an optical path length of a light ray becomes gradually longer toward the outer side of the plural ring-shaped zones.