Patent ID: 7403279

Claim:
An information recording medium examining apparatus for examining an appearance of an information recording medium, comprising: an electron gun for irradiating an intended position of said information recording medium with an electron beam; a stage for holding said information recording medium such that said information recording medium can be moved along a rotation direction and a radial direction; a detector for detecting electrons having acquired information of a surface of said information recording medium by irradiating said information recording medium with the electron beam; an image producing unit for acquiring an image of the surface of said information recording medium based on the electrons detected by said detector; and a recording-purpose electron gun for irradiating said information recording medium with an electron beam in order to record thereon information, wherein an irradiation position of said examining-purpose electron beam is provided at a post position of the irradiation position of the recording-purpose electron beam by said recording-purpose electron gun.