An optical head includes a hologram which extracts, from a luminous flux of reflected light from an optical disk, at least a first luminous flux branch which does not include the optical axis of the luminous flux; and a photodetector which receives the reflected light from the optical disk and produces signal output, wherein the photodetector has light-receiving areas which receive the first luminous flux branch of reflected light from an optical information recording medium layer targeted for recording or playback out of the plurality of optical information recording medium layers of the optical disk, the light-receiving areas are placed in such a way that the signal output resulting from a light spot formed by the first luminous flux branch of the reflected light from the optical information recording medium layer targeted for recording or playback is practically the same between the first and second photodetection areas, and a boundary line of the light-receiving areas is located in such a position as not to include light spots formed by luminous fluxes of reflected light from the optical information recording medium layers other than the optical information recording medium layer targeted for recording or playback.