OPTICAL RECORDING MEDIUM

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To excellently repeat rewriting of pits irrespective of setting linear velocity of writing light to any value by specifying the quantity of additive to be added to a phase transition material layer in a recording medium using the phase transition material layer as a recording layer. SOLUTION: This optical recording medium is composed of the phase transition material layer 2, in which the additive is added, a protective layer 3 and a reflection layer 4 successively formed on a transparent substrate 1. The phase transition material layer 2 is made amorphous by being irradiated with laser beam and changed to liquid phase by being rapidly cooled. And since the recrystallization during the cooling process after changing to liquid phase is suppressed by controlling the quantity of the additive added into the phase transition material layer corresponding to the linear velocity, excellent pit shape is obtained and incomplete erasure at the time of erasing is suppressed. Thus, the rewriting of information signal is excellently repeated even when a mark length recording system is adopted.