Patent ID: 7436742

Claim:
An optical recording device comprising: an optical pickup unit including a laser beam source that generates a laser beam, an optical system that irradiates the laser beam on an optical recording medium, and an aberration correcting unit that corrects wavefront aberrations produced in the optical system and the optical recording medium; a detecting unit that detects an optimum recording power of the laser beam with respect to the optical recording medium; and a controlling unit that controls the aberration correcting unit such that the optimum recording power to be detected by the detecting unit is at a minimum, wherein the detecting unit detects the optimum recording power based on reproduction signals of trial writing data recorded with changing recording powers in a predetermined area of the optical recording medium, wherein the aberration correcting unit corrects the wavefront aberrations based on an aberration correction value, wherein the controlling unit sets an initial value of the aberration correction value to a value at which the optimum recording power decreases by variably changing the aberration correction value, and wherein the controlling unit detects the aberration correction value at which the optimum recording power is at a minimum by variably changing the aberration correction value by one or more first predetermined increments from the initial value.