JPH09167372A - Manufacture of optical head device and device therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform highly accurate and high quality recording/reproduction with a high optical efficiency by irradiating an exposure diffraction grating member having a plurality of diffraction grating regions with a parallel light and subjecting this to interference and exposure in the substrate of a photosensitive member so as to form a volume hologram. SOLUTION: Grating regions A and B composed of surface recessed/projected type diffraction gratings 4A and 4B are formed on the upper surface of the upper layer cover glass 2 of an exposure diffraction grating member. Each of the diffraction gratings 4A and 4B has a grating pattern decided based on a phase transformation function different from each other. Of parallel lights made incident from the upper part, a light reaching the grating region A and a light reaching the grating region B are diffracted at specified rates, made incident on the substrate 1 of a photosensitive member as respective collecting magnetic fluxes, interference fringes are formed in the substrate 1, and thereby, a volume hologram is formed. A shutting-off mask 5 is provided between the grating regions A and B, a middle shutting-off mask 3 is inserted and thus an optical head having a high optical efficiency is manufactured.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an optical head device that can be used in a device for reproducing information from an optical disk, a recording device, etc.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an optical head device for writing or reading optical information on an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk or the like, a volume hologram on a glass or plastic substrate, or a volume hologram and an optical phase difference element. There is proposed a structure in which a laminated body is adhered.

However, when this volume hologram is exposed and manufactured by a method using two parallel rays as conventionally known, a semiconductor laser is produced due to the incident angle dependence of the diffraction efficiency which is a characteristic of the volume hologram. For light having a certain angle spread, such as the light emitted from, the high efficiency that is expected from a parallel light source cannot be obtained.

FIG. 6 shows the basic concept of a conventional method for manufacturing a volume hologram for an optical head device. Conventionally, for example, as shown in FIG.
The beam is split into two and collimated by a lens or the like to make parallel light, which is directly or directly reflected on the volume hologram 11 by providing a relative angle to each other.
It was exposed by illuminating through.

At this time, for example, Δn (half the difference between the highest refractive index portion and the lowest refractive index portion) is 0.05, and the thickness is 27.
Using a μm volume hologram film, when the S wave from the semiconductor laser is vertically incident on the volume hologram and the reflected light from the optical disk is re-incident on the volume hologram through the aspheric lens (objective lens) as the P wave, If the diffraction angle by the hologram is 30 °, according to the theory of Kogelnik, a round trip efficiency of about 73% is theoretically obtained.

The S wave is light whose polarization direction is orthogonal to the plane containing the incident light and the diffracted light, and the P wave is the light whose polarization direction is contained in the plane containing the incident light and the diffracted light. .

[0007]

However, the actual volumetric efficiency of the conventional volume hologram is considerably smaller than the theoretical value. This will be described with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8. FIG. 7 is a graph of the angle dependence of diffraction efficiency,
FIG. 8 shows the optical path for a volume hologram. In FIG. 7, the horizontal axis represents the angle shift and the vertical axis represents the diffraction efficiency.
The diffraction efficiency = 1 is 100%.

As can be seen from FIG. 7, a high reciprocal efficiency is obtained at the central portion, but there is light such as light of a semiconductor laser (light source) actually used and return light from an optical disk that has passed through an aspherical lens. For light with a divergence angle, we can only expect an average value over the entire angle.
When the round-trip efficiency is calculated by assuming an average angular distribution of strength, it is theoretically estimated that the efficiency is about 32% at most.

Essentially, the light originally emitted from the semiconductor laser 13 and the light that has passed through the aspherical lens from the optical disc and detected by the return detector 14 basically converge as shown in FIG. Light and divergent light, not parallel light. Nevertheless, when forming the volume hologram, the efficiency is lowered because the parallel light is used for the exposure.

Such angle dependence has a thickness of about 20 μm.
It is considered that this is a significant problem in the volume hologram having a thickness considerably larger than that of the relief type (surface unevenness type) hologram of m.

An object of the present invention is to provide a novel method and apparatus for manufacturing an optical head device which solves the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art.

[0012]

The present invention is directed to an optical head device for writing and / or reading optical information by irradiating an optical recording medium with light from a light source through a diffraction element having a volume hologram. In the manufacturing method, an exposure diffraction grating member having a plurality of grating regions determined based on different phase conversion functions is irradiated with substantially parallel light to expose the plurality of diffracted lights generated in the grating regions. Provided is a method for manufacturing an optical head device, which comprises forming a volume hologram by causing interference and exposure in a substrate made of a material.

Further, according to the present invention, a light source for obtaining substantially parallel light, a substrate made of a photosensitive material on which a volume hologram is to be formed, and a plurality of grating regions determined based on different phase conversion functions are provided. And an exposure diffraction grating member having the exposure diffraction grating member, wherein the exposure diffraction grating member is provided between the light source and the substrate so that a plurality of diffracted lights generated by the grating region interfere in the substrate. An apparatus for manufacturing an optical head device is provided.

[0014]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An optical head device manufactured according to the present invention includes a light source for irradiating an optical disc, which is an information recording medium, with light, and a detector for detecting the light reflected by the optical disc. A volume hologram or a diffraction element formed by laminating a volume hologram and an optical phase difference element between the light source and the optical disc.

The volume hologram is directly formed by a plurality of relief (surface irregularity) type diffraction grating regions (grating regions) having a grating pattern determined on the basis of independent phase conversion functions, an electron beam exposure machine, or the like. A plurality of convergent lights (diffracted lights) from the respective grating regions, which are generated by irradiating the exposure diffraction grating member having the different grating regions with substantially parallel light, interfere with each other in the substrate made of the photosensitive material. It is manufactured by exposing and exposing.

The photosensitive material is a photopolymer,
Dichromated gelatin, silver salt film and the like can be preferably used. As a result, it is possible to provide an optical head device having high light reciprocating efficiency even for a light source having a certain divergence angle such as a semiconductor laser.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the exposure diffraction grating member is a surface-roughened diffraction grating having a grating region having a predetermined grating pattern, or a photomask for producing the surface-roughened diffraction grating. May be

In a further preferred embodiment, in order to prevent the exposure of the volume hologram by the substantially collimated light itself,
A shielding mask is provided between the grating regions of the exposure diffraction grating member. As the shielding mask, a metal reflective film such as Cr or Al, a dielectric multilayer reflective film such as TiO ₂ or SiO ₂ , a black organic film containing carbon, a black dye or a black pigment,
Alternatively, a film obtained by firing the black organic film can be preferably used.

In still another preferred embodiment, the number of the lattice regions is two, one of which is further divided into a plurality of volume holograms to form a volume hologram, and the diffracted light of the volume hologram converges at different positions. The focus error detection function is added to the diffractive element by performing detection by each detector.

In still another preferred embodiment, one of the diffracted light beams from the volume hologram is focused on the position corresponding to the light source, and the other one is focused on the position corresponding to the detector. By setting the phase conversion function of the two grating areas and dividing the grating area corresponding to the diffracted light that converges on the detector in the two grating areas into two and exposing the volume hologram, the focus error is detected in the diffractive element. Add functionality.

In still another preferred embodiment, a plurality of exposure diffraction grating members are arranged in parallel and a plurality of volume holograms are simultaneously produced by one exposure.

In still another preferred embodiment, the exposure diffraction grating member is provided with a shielding mask for blocking diffracted light other than a desired diffraction order generated by the grating region. This shield mask is made of the same material as the shield mask provided between the lattice regions.

[0023]

1 is a partial side view of an exposure diffraction grating member and a volume hologram for manufacturing a volume hologram for an optical head device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The volume hologram is formed in the substrate 1 made of a photosensitive material. A cover glass 2 coated with an antireflection film is laminated and attached to both surfaces of the substrate.

The upper cover glass 2 as the exposure diffraction grating member has two grating areas A and B on the upper surface. 2
One of the grating areas A and B is composed of relief type (surface unevenness type) diffraction gratings 4A and 4B, and two grating areas A and B are formed in parallel. The diffraction gratings 4A and 4B have grating patterns determined based on different phase conversion functions in order to obtain diffracted light of desired diffraction orders.

Between the two diffraction gratings 4A and 4B, the diffraction grating 4
A shielding mask 5 made of a black organic film is provided for separating A and 4B and blocking light incident on regions other than the diffraction gratings 4A and 4B. In addition, in the middle portion of the cover glass 2 of the upper layer in the substrate, a set of adjacent lattice regions 7 is formed.
An intermediate shielding mask 3 made of a black organic film is provided so that adjacent diffracted lights do not interfere with each other. The intermediate shielding mask 3 is formed by, for example, forming the upper cover glass 2 by laminating two glass substrates and providing the cover glass 2 between the two glass substrates.

In the above structure, light which is substantially parallel to the grating regions A and B of the cover glass 2 above the light source (not shown) is irradiated and diffracted in each of the grating regions A and B to obtain converged light. These are made to interfere with each other on the substrate 1 to form interference fringes to produce a volume hologram.

As shown in FIG. 1, cover glasses 2 are laminated, and relief type diffraction gratings 4A and 4B, for example, are formed on the uppermost part thereof by a photolithography method using a photomask.
The relief type diffraction gratings 4A and 4B form two different grating areas A and B, and a grating pattern is formed on the basis of independent phase conversion functions.

Of the substantially parallel light incident from the upper part, the light reaching the grating region A and the light reaching the grating region B are diffracted at a predetermined ratio and become convergent lights and enter the substrate 1. , And overlap in the substrate 1 to cause interference.

The exposure with the convergent light from the two grating regions A and B as described above is performed on the assumption that the light emitted from the semiconductor laser and the light emitted from the detector interfere as shown in FIG. Since it is substantially the same as the above, higher reciprocating efficiency can be obtained as compared with exposure by parallel light.

Further, when light from a position between the grating regions A and B enters the substrate 1, unnecessary interference fringes may be formed. Therefore, a light absorber or an opaque material is used in this region. It is preferable that the light is blocked by the shielding mask 5.

Furthermore, in order to prevent disturbance due to diffracted light other than the desired diffraction order due to light scattering or the like, an intermediate shielding mask 3 having a function of absorbing or reflecting light is inserted between the grating regions A and B and the substrate 1. Preferably. In this case, a plurality of sets 7 of two lattice areas A and B are arranged in parallel as shown in FIG.
It is also possible to prevent interference between adjacent patterns due to diffracted light other than the desired order, which occurs when trying to obtain a large number of volume holograms by one exposure.

FIG. 2 shows a specific embodiment of the present invention. Argon ion laser light having a light wavelength of 514.5 nm was used as an exposure light source, and the exposure angle was set in consideration of the difference between the light wavelength of the exposure light source and the reproduction wavelength and the change of the lattice tilt angle due to heat treatment or the like.

The incident angle θ of the argon ion laser beam
Was determined in consideration of ease of making the relief type diffraction gratings 4A and 4B. That is, if an attempt is made to increase the diffraction angle with respect to the incident angle θ, it is necessary to make the grating pitch of the diffraction gratings 4A and 4B fine, and it becomes difficult to manufacture the diffraction gratings 4A and 4B by the photolithography method.

In this embodiment, the incident angle θ is about 23 °, the diffraction angle in the A region is about 33 ° and the diffraction angle in the B region is about 13 ° with respect to the incident angle θ. The cover glass 2 on the upper side of the substrate 1 has a three-layer structure and the uppermost layer has a thickness of 2.3.
mm, and the two layers below it were 3 mm. A space between the cover glasses 2 was filled with a matching liquid 6 having the same refractive index as those glasses.

The material of the substrate 1 forming the volume hologram is a photopolymer, and Δn is 0.05 and the thickness is 27 μ.
m. When an optical head device including a diffractive element using the volume hologram and a semiconductor laser having a light wavelength of 780 nm as a light source was manufactured, a round trip efficiency of light of about 50% was obtained.

Next, an example in which a focus error detecting function is added to the optical head device according to the present invention will be described. First, FIG. 3 shows an example in which the above-mentioned focus error detection function is not added. That is, the diffracted light from the grating regions A and B formed of the two diffraction gratings 4A and 4B each having different diffraction characteristics is caused to interfere in the substrate 1. In this example, the light from the grating region A converges on the position D of the detector and the light from the grating region B converges on the position S of the semiconductor laser,
The positions of the grating areas A and B and other diffraction conditions are set.

4 and 5 show an example in which a focus error detecting function is added to the above-mentioned basic structure. In FIG. 4, a grating region C for converging light at the position S of the semiconductor laser is divided into two, and a grating region A for converging light at the detector D1 and a detector D2. Two regions of a lattice region B for converging light are provided. 4A, 4B, and 4C are diffraction gratings having different phase conversion functions.

The diffracted light from the grating regions A and B intersect on the lower side of the substrate 1 and interfere with the diffracted light from the grating region C at different positions in the substrate 1. The diffracted light from the grating region A and the diffracted light from the grating region B have different focal lengths and are spatially separated at the detector positions D1 and D2. Therefore, splitting the light going to the detector in this way,
By comparing the detection signal strength etc. with each detector, SS
It is possible to detect a focus error by the D (Spot Size Detection) method.

In the example of FIG. 5, the diffracted light from the grating areas A and B for focusing the light on the two detectors D1 and D2 intersects on the upper side of the substrate 1, and then the grating areas C at different positions.
It interferes with the diffracted light from. Other configurations and operational effects are similar to those of the example of FIG.

In FIGS. 3 to 5, the diffraction state of the diffracted light is drawn as a substantially linear light for simplification. 2 to 5, the grating regions A to C are not limited to relief type diffraction gratings (surface unevenness type diffraction gratings) and may be volume type diffraction gratings or the like, so they are not drawn as unevenness.

[0041]

As described above, in the present invention, since a volume hologram is formed by causing at least two convergent lights to interfere with each other, the diffused or convergent lights of a semiconductor laser or the like used in an optical head device are not affected. It is possible to obtain high light efficiency and record and reproduce high-precision and high-quality information. In addition, a plurality of volume holograms can be easily produced at the same time by arranging a plurality of sets of exposure grating regions side by side. Further, since the present invention is not the spatial exposure but the exposure through the exposure diffraction grating member, the exposure stability and reproducibility are excellent.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partial side view of an exposure diffraction grating member and a volume hologram substrate according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial side view of the exposure diffraction grating member and the volume hologram substrate according to the specific embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a side view illustrating an optical path of the exposure diffraction grating member according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a side view illustrating an optical path of the exposure diffraction grating member when the focus error detection function is added to the volume hologram according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a side view showing an optical path by the exposure diffraction grating member when a focus error detection function is added to the volume hologram according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a side view showing a conventional example when a volume hologram is formed.

FIG. 7 is a graph of angle dependence of conventional volume hologram diffraction efficiency.

FIG. 8 is a partial side view illustrating an optical path of an optical head device when a diffused light source and a volume hologram are used, showing a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: Substrate 2: Cover glass 3: Intermediate shielding mask 4A: Diffraction grating 4B: Diffraction grating 4C: Diffraction grating 5: Shielding mask

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Yuji Aizawa 1150 Hazawa-machi, Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture Asahi Glass Co., Ltd. Central Research Laboratory

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A method of manufacturing an optical head device for writing and / or reading optical information by irradiating an optical recording medium with light from a light source through a diffractive element having a volume hologram. The exposure diffraction grating member having a plurality of grating regions determined based on the function is irradiated with substantially parallel light to cause the plurality of diffracted lights generated in the grating regions to interfere in the substrate made of the photosensitive material. A method of manufacturing an optical head device, which comprises forming a volume hologram by exposing. 2. A method of manufacturing an optical head device according to claim 1, wherein a shielding mask is provided between the grating regions of the exposure diffraction grating member. 3. The two grating regions, one of which is further divided into a plurality of volume holograms to form volume holograms so that the diffracted light of the volume holograms converges at different positions, respectively. 3. The method of manufacturing an optical head device according to claim 1, wherein the diffractive element is provided with a focus error detection function by detecting with a detector. 4. The phase of the two grating regions of the exposure diffraction grating member so that one of the light diffracted by the volume hologram converges at a position corresponding to the light source and the other one converges at a position corresponding to the detector. A focus error detection function is provided to the diffractive element by setting a conversion function, dividing the grating region corresponding to the diffracted light that converges on the detector among the two grating regions, and exposing the volume hologram. 3. The method for manufacturing an optical head device as described in 3. 5. A plurality of exposure diffraction grating members are arranged in parallel to form one.
The method of manufacturing an optical head device according to claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, wherein a plurality of volume holograms are simultaneously produced by exposing once. 6. The optical head according to claim 1, wherein a shielding mask for blocking diffracted light other than a desired diffraction order generated by the grating region is provided on the exposure diffraction grating member. Device manufacturing method. 7. An exposure apparatus having a light source for obtaining substantially parallel light, a substrate made of a photosensitive material on which a volume hologram is to be formed, and a plurality of grating areas determined based on different phase conversion functions. An optical head device, comprising: a diffraction grating member, wherein the exposure diffraction grating member is provided between the light source and the substrate so that a plurality of diffracted lights generated by the grating region interfere in the substrate. Manufacturing equipment.