POLARIZING ELEMENT AND OPTICAL ELEMENT, AND OPTICAL HEAD.

摘要

A plurality of slant faces (1419) are formed on a substrate (1406). A polarized optical thin film is formed on the slant faces. The recess defined by the slant faces (1419) is filled with transparent material to form a small composite polarizing element. By this polarizing element, it is possible to detect magneto-optic signals excellent in transmissivity and extinction ratio and high in S/N ratio. Also, this polarizing element serves as the cover of the package (1408) of an optical head which houses a photodetecting element (1409) and a light emitting element (1411) integrally. Also, by use of an optical element having an optical path length adjustment function of varying the optical path length of the outgoing light beam from that of the incoming light beam, it is possible to eliminate the initial offset of the focal point error signals and to omit the adjustment at the same time. In this way, a small, simple and high-performance optical head used for magneto-optic recording and reproducing apparatus can be realized.