Patent ID: 7960092

Claim:
A method of recording and reproducing information on an optical information recording medium including a recording layer, the method comprising: initializing at least a part of the recording layer, which includes an inorganic metal compound dispersed in a resin containing a photopolymerization property, a photocrosslinking property, or both the photopolymerization and the photocrosslinking properties, the step of initializing including uniformly hardening the resin via a photoreaction by irradiating the medium with a predetermined initialization light having a wavelength of 365 nm, the initialization light being parallel light, forming a cavity as a recording mark in the recording layer to record information by condensing a recording light to the medium and increasing a temperature of the medium near a focal point of the recording light such that the inorganic metal compound is transubstantiated, and irradiating the recording mark in the recording medium with a predetermined reading light to reproduce the information based on returned light.