Astigmatic diffractive optical element for swing-arm-type optical pickup head

Based on a finite-conjugate objective lens with numerical aperture of 0.62 for a 650-nm wavelength, an optical pickup head composed of a multifunction beamsplitter and a diffractive optical element is designed be used in a swing-arm-type optical pickup head. The diffractive optical element is a lens with an elliptical four-level phase profile to provide both focusing and astigmatism. It is also designed with the goal to simplify the overall optical configuration and provide linear characteristics for the focus error signal.