US Patent RE39952 Laser power controller and optical disk device

A power control device for controlling a power of a light source of an optical beam directed to an optical medium. The power control device includes a reflected light detector for detecting reflected light from the optical medium when irradiated by an optical beam which is following a track; an arithmetic unit for calculating from the reflected light a transmissivity of light transmitted from a disk surface to a recording layer or an amount of directed light on the recording layer of the medium; and power control means for controlling the power of the light source for emission based on a calculation result produced by the arithmetic unit.