Patent ID: 7751298

Claim:
An optical disc apparatus comprising: a light source; an optical system including an objective lens, which condenses a light beam emitted from the light source onto a recording surface of the optical recording medium and leads a light beam reflected by the recording surface to a predetermined light receiving position; a liquid crystal element including liquid crystal and two transparent electrodes that sandwich the liquid crystal, the liquid crystal element disposed in the optical system so as to correct wave aberration; and light detecting unit disposed at the predetermined light receiving position so as to receive the light beam reflected by the recording surface, wherein the optical disc apparatus further comprises: a memory portion for storing information about a variation with time of orientation direction of the liquid crystal in the case where a voltage is applied to the liquid crystal, with respect to at least one type of voltage value, and a drive voltage deciding portion that obtains time period after a predetermined drive voltage is applied to the liquid crystal element until a reproduced signal obtained by processing an electric signal converted by the light detecting unit becomes optimal, and decides a drive voltage to be applied to the liquid crystal element based on the obtained time period, the information stored in the memory portion, and the predetermined drive voltage.