An optical information recording medium, especially a CD-RW medium, that
can undergo direct overwriting at high speed is disclosed. The optical
information recording medium includes a transparent substrate, at least a
recording layer and a reflective layer on or above the substrate and is
capable of performing at least one of recording, erasing and rewriting
information by irradiating and scanning with focused light to thereby
form and/or erase recording marks on the recording layer. The recording
layer contains an alloy and/or an intermetallic compound mainly
containing Ga, Ge, Sb, and Te in a compositional ratio represented by the
following formula: Ga.sub.xGe.sub.y(Sb.sub.zTe.sub.1-z).sub.1-x-y wherein
x, y, and z each represent an atomic ratio of a positive real number less
than 1 and satisfy the following conditions: 0.02.ltoreq.x.ltoreq.0.06,
0.01.ltoreq.y.ltoreq.0.06, 0.80.ltoreq.z.ltoreq.0.86, x.gtoreq.y, and
x+y.ltoreq.0.1.