Patent ID: 8169877

Claim:
An optical disc apparatus for recording and/or reading information on or from an optical disc including a plurality of recording layers, said optical disc apparatus comprising: a laser light source configured to irradiate laser light to said optical disc; a spherical aberration correcting portion configured to set a given amount of correction of spherical aberration for the laser light emitted from said laser light source, at each of the plurality of recording layers of said optical disc during a focus sweep using the actuator, and to correct the spherical aberration; an objective lens configured to focus said laser light onto any one of said recording layers via said spherical aberration correcting portion; an actuator configured to move said objective lens toward a focus direction in the optical disc, wherein during the focus sweep using said actuator, a velocity at which the objective lens moves is varied by said actuator between a first recording layer and a second recording layer which are adjacent to each other; and a photodetector portion configured to detect light returning from said optical disc, and configured to generate a signal for each of the plurality of said recording layers, in response to the light returning from said optical disc; wherein said objective lens moves at a first velocity before an amplitude of a signal corresponding to the first recording layer of the optical disc takes a maximum value, and wherein said objective lens moves at a second velocity lower than the first velocity after the amplitude of the signal corresponding to the first recording layer of the optical disc takes the maximum value.