Optical head and apparatus for and method of storing and reproducing optical information

An apparatus for storing and reproducing optical information, said the apparatus comprising:

• a light emitting element having plurality of light sources integrally formed, said the light sources being operable to emit beams having different wave lengths from each other;
• an optical system operable to converge a beam emitted by any one of said the light sources of said the light emitting element onto an optical information storage medium;
• an optical separator operable to separate a reflected beam coming from the optical information storage medium from the beam coming from said the one of said the light sources;
• a light receiving element operable to detect light quantities of the reflected beam separated by said the optical separator;
• and
• an electric circuit operable to transform optical signals of said the light receiving element to electric signals so as to output signals stored in the optical information storage medium as the electric signals,
• wherein an aligning direction of the light sources is inclined by about 45 degrees in a rotational direction around an axis of the beam coming from the one of the light sources based on a reflection axis of the optical separator.

A method of storing and reproducing optical information for an apparatus for storing and reproducing the optical information with an optical head, the optical head including a light emitting element having a plurality of light sources integrally formed, the light sources being operable to emit beams having different wave lengths from each other, an optical system operable to converge a beam emitted by any one of the light sources of the light emitting element onto an optical information storage medium, an optical separator operable to separate a reflected beam coming from the optical information storage medium from the beam coming from the one of the light sources, and a light receiving element operable to detect light quantities of the reflected beam separated by the optical separator, said the method comprising:

• identifying a kind of the optical information storage medium;
• making the light emitting element emit a beam having a wave length corresponding to the identified kind of the optical information storage medium and then converging the beam onto the optical information storage medium;
• and
• detecting the reflected beam coming from the optical information storage medium and then outputting signals stored in the optical information storage medium as electric signals,
• wherein an aligning direction of the light sources is inclined by about 45 degrees in a rotational direction around an axis of the beam coming from the one of the light sources based on a reflection axis of the optical separator.