Panasonic Corporation

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Katsuhiko Yasuda

Kousei Sano

Shin-ichi Kadowaki

Hiroaki Yamamoto

Fumitomo Yamasaki

Akihiro Arai

Tomotada Kamei

Daisuke Ogata

Hidenori Wada

Kanji Wakabayashi

Yuuichi Kuze

Naoya Hotta

Yoshiaki Komma

Toshio Matsumoto

Seiji Nishino

Takeharu Yamamoto

Masahiro Inata

Yoshihiro Kanda

Akihiro Yasuda

Yoshihiro Ikawa

An optical information apparatus includes a laser which emits a light beam, an objective lens and the like which converge a light beam emitted from the laser on an optical recording medium, spherical aberration correction instrument which is arranged on an optical axis of the light beam which links the laser and the objective lens, and corrects a spherical aberration generated on the optical recording medium. Correction is performed so that outgoing power of the laser changes according to a correction amount by the spherical aberration correction instrument.

Light information apparatus and control method of light information apparatus

An optical information apparatus of the present invention includes: an optical pick-up head including: a light source; a diffraction unit; a condensing unit; a beam splitter; a photodetector; and a tracking error signal generator. An optical recording medium has tracks arranged substantially at a constant pitch. An average of a pitch is tp. When a main beam is placed on the track, a first sub-beam and a second sub-beam are placed between the tracks. The tracking error signal generator performs a differential arithmetic operation with respect to signals output from a light-receiving portion receiving the main beam to generate a first push-pull signal, performs a differential arithmetic operation with respect to signals output from the light-receiving portions receiving the first sub-beam and the second sub-beam to generate a second push-pull signal, and performs a differential arithmetic operation with respect to the first push-pull signal and the second push-pull signal to generate a tracking error signal, in a case where an amplitude of the first push-pull signal obtained at the pitch tp is fluctuated when the light beam is scanned in a direction orthogonal to the tracks of the optical recording medium.

Optical pick-up head, optical information apparatus, and optical information reproducing method

The quantity of spherical aberration correction is predetermined for each recording plane of an optical disk on which focusing control is performed. Before operating the focusing control, the quantity of spherical aberration to be corrected by an aberration correcting system is set based on an output signal from an aberration correction quantity switching device that corresponds to the type of the optical disk and the recording plane to be subjected to the focusing control. This makes it possible to perform stable focusing control on each recording plane of a multi-layer optical disk with high density by using an objecting lens having a large NA after spherical aberration has been corrected properly.

Optical disk apparatus

Tilt which is inclination of a normal of optical disk relative to optical axis of optical head is corrected with a liquid crystal element. In a driver for the liquid crystal element, a periodic waveform generator generates periodic waveform and an inverting element inverts the periodic waveform. The periodic waveform and the inverted waveform are connected to two ends of a potential divider which provides partial voltages. The periodic waveform is connected to a common electrode of the liquid crystal element, and the partial voltages of the potential divider are connected to electrodes opposing the common electrode. A structure of a driver circuit for each direction is simple. Tilt in a plurality of directions can be performed independently of each other. Spherical aberration is also corrected. When the liquid crystal element is mounted to a fixed component, deterioration due to jitters is reduced.

Liquid crystal driver and optical head for tilt correction

An optical head apparatus capable of stably obtaining a detection signal of spherical aberration even with a high density optical disk. A spherical aberration error signal is obtained by: dividing the returning light from the optical disk into a transmitted light and a diffracted light; reproducing information with the transmitted light having a larger amount of light while dividing the diffracted light having a small amount of light into two regions, i.e., region near the optical axis and a region distant from the optical axis; determining amounts of focus deviation in respective regions as focus error signals; and taking the difference signal therebetween. Thus, it is possible to detect the amount of spherical aberration with the SN ratio of the information reproducing signal kept at high level.

Optical head apparatus, optical information recording and reproducing apparatus, method for detecting aberration and method for adjusting optical head apparatus

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Neyagawa, Japan

Katsuhiko Yasuda