Multifocus optical pickup with diffractive optical elements

A novel optical pickup based on DOEs is proposed and first key optical elements are designed and fabricated. The DOE-pickup enables multi-focus imaging and speeds up the data transfer rate. Parallel reading of many tracks and two or more superimposed memory layers is possible. Our measurements revealed, that the efficiencies and the optical performances of the DOEs are suitable for the implementation in an optical DVD-pickup.