Beam shaper device for optical read/write heads

摘要

A beam shaper device for an optical read/write head on an optical disc drive is provided. This beam shaper device is particularly useful for shaping a laser beam originally emitted with an elliptical cross section, into having a substantially circular cross section. The beam shaper device includes only one prism and one plane mirror. The shape of the prism and the orientation of the plane mirror are specifically devised in such a way as to allow the output beam shaper device to have a circular cross section and to have its propagation axis orthogonal to that of the input laser beam.