Optical pickup device

1. An optical pickup device for recording information onto an optical information recording medium and reading and erasing information recorded on the optical information recording medium, comprising:

a light source;

a diffraction grating for separating a light beam emitted from the light source into at least three light beams; and

a photodetector for receiving the separated light beams reflected from the optical information recording medium, wherein

the diffraction grating is divided into a first region, a second region, a third region, and a fourth region having periodic structures of different phases from one another by dividing lines extending in a direction parallel to a tangential direction of tracks of the optical information recording medium,

the second region and the third region are located between the first region and the fourth region sequentially from the first region side,

the periodic structure of the second region has a phase difference of approximately 180 degrees from the periodic structure of the third region, and

the periodic structure of the first region has a phase difference of approximately 180 degrees from the periodic structure of the fourth region.

2. The optical pickup device according to claim 1 , wherein a +1 st order diffracted light beam that has passed through the first region has a phase difference of 80 degrees to 100 degrees from a +1 st order diffracted light beam that has passed through the second region.

3. The optical pickup device according to claim 1 , wherein a +1 st order diffracted light beam that has passed through the first region has a phase difference of 35 degrees to 55 degrees from a +1 st order diffracted light beam that has passed through the second region.

4. The optical pickup device according to claim 1 , wherein a distance between the dividing line dividing the first region and the second region from each other and the dividing line dividing the second region and the third region from each other is equal to a distance between the dividing line dividing the second region and the third region from each other and the dividing line dividing the third region and the fourth region from each other.

5. The optical pickup device according to claim 1 , wherein a plurality of guide grooves are periodically formed on a recording surface of the optical information recording medium, and each of the light beams is converged on one of the plurality of guide grooves.

6. The optical pickup device according to claim 1 , further comprising an arithmetic processing circuit for detecting a tracking error signal by a differential push-pull method based on an output signal of the photodetector.

7. The optical pickup device according to claim 1 , wherein the photodetector includes at least three light receiving elements respectively corresponding to the reflected light beams, and each of the light receiving elements is divided into a plurality of light receiving regions.

8. The optical pickup device according to claim 1 , wherein a center of the light beam emitted from the light source is positioned in the second region or the third region.

9. The optical pickup device according to claim 1 , further comprising an objective lens for converging the at least three light beams onto a recording surface of the optical information recording medium as independent convergence spots, wherein a region of the diffraction grating on which a range of the emitted light beam corresponding to an effective beam diameter determined by an aperture diameter of the objective lens is incident includes the first region, the second region, the third region, and the fourth region.

10. The optical pickup device according to claim 9 , wherein a sum of a width of the second region and a width of the third region is in a range of 10% to 40% of the effective beam diameter.