An optical pickup which can remove birefringence due to the non-uniformity
of an optical recording medium by using a polarization beam splitter. The
optical pickup includes a light source emitting a laser beam, a beam
splitter reflecting part of incident light and straight transmitting the
remaining light to change a proceeding path of the incident light, an
objective lens focusing the incident light passed through the beam
splitter to form a light spot on an optical recording medium, a
polarization beam splitter arranged on an optical path between the beam
splitter and the objective lens for transmitting light having one
polarization and reflecting light having a different polarization. The
optical pickup further includes a first photodetector for receiving the
light having one polarization which is reflected from the optical
recording medium and is transmitted by the polarization beam splitter and
passes through the beam splitter, and a second photodetector for
receiving the light having a different polarization reflected from the
optical recording medium that is reflected by the polarization beam
splitter. An information signal and error signals are then determined
from a signal detected by the first and second photodetectors.