Patent ID: 7512049

Claim:
An optical pickup apparatus which modulates intensity of a light beam based on data to be recorded on an optical recording medium and emits the light beam, of which intensity is modified, to the optical recording medium, the optical pickup apparatus comprising: an emission device which emits the light beam to the optical recording medium by switching between a multi-pulse beam consisting of a plurality of pulsed lights and single-pulse beam consisting of a single pulsed light depending on the data, and depending on whether a recording period is a predetermined period, wherein the emission device emits a write beam of the multi-pulse beam at the time of forming a mark of the data, and emits an erase beam at the time of forming a space of the data, and wherein the emission device emits the erase beam of the single-pulse beam during the predetermined period, and emits the erase beam of the multi-pulse beam during a period other than the predetermined period; a detection device which detects at least part of the light beam emitted from said emission device; an acquisition device which acquires an emitted light intensity level of the detected light beam as a sampling value during the predetermined period; a storage device which stores a target sampling value that serves as a target for the light intensity level of the light beam; an error calculation device which calculates error between the stored target sampling value and the acquired sampling value; and a control device which controls the output intensity level of the light beam emitted from said emission device, based on the calculated sampling error, wherein an automatic power control timing period is regarded as the predetermined period.