Concerning a tilt detecting optical pickup in an optical disk playback device, a highly precise tilt error signal can be obtained by a simple structure. As a structure for achieving this, there are provided a diffraction grating, on which a grating groove pattern has been engraved, capable of adding coma aberration components to + and - primary diffracted light on an optical path between a laser diode, which becomes a playback light source, and an optical disk, and a light-receiving element capable of receiving the diffracted light. The output from a signal processing circuit capable of calculating a difference between each light receiving strength becomes a tilt error signal. By deforming the aforesaid grating groove pattern, the layout of the coma aberration components can be changed. Also, a tilt error signal can be obtained from a difference in bit error numbers in playback signals from diffracted light having coma aberration. Addition of coma aberration components to the diffracted light makes it possible to easily improve the sensitivity of a tilt error signal to the tilt angle.