To prevent the formation of air bubbles in a dye exerting effect on the perfectness of data and generating a reading error immediately after writing or during a certain preserving period and/or after use or during the restoration of written data.

In an optical recording element successively having a transparent substrate, a recording layer and a light reflecting layer, the recording layer contains a polymer cyanine dye having a refractive index (N) of the real number of 1.8 or more at 780nm and an imaginary part (k) of 0.15 or less and having a wt. average mol.wt. of above 50,000 and glass transition temp. (Tg) lower than 150°C or either one of a wt. average mol.wt. of above 50,000 and a glass transition temp. (Tg) lower than 150°C and has a thickness of above 200nm.