An optical head and a recording and/or reproducing apparatus employing the optical head, are disclosed in which variations in the amplitude and phase of the push-pull detected preformat signals, such as MSK modulated wobble signals which encode address information, are reduced. Such variations occur because of variations in the phase relationship with the neighbouring tracks, since the interference from in-phase and out-of-phase reletionships is different. The beam from the in-phase relationship between neighbouring tracks contains a reflected beam and diffracted beams with a shift »/(Tp·NA) and the beam from the out-of-phase relationship a reflected beam and diffracted beams with shifts »/(Tp·NA) and »/(2·Tp·NA). The photodetector unit includes a first light receiving section (230b) and a second light receiving section (230c). Each of the first and second light receiving section receives the light of one of two light spot areas lying on both sides of a centre area, and the signal components from the diffracted light with a shift »/(2·Tp·NA) generated in the centre area of the light spot may be removed and variation in the amplitude or phase of the push-pull signal reduced.
Optical head and recording and/or reproducing apparatus