Recording material

In a process for recording information on a recording material by imagewise scanning the recordng material with a high temperature energy source to evaporate or thermally deform by melting the scanned portions of a recording layer of the recording material by the heat energy of the high temperature energy source thereby removing said scanned portions of said recording layer, the improvement wherein the recording material comprises a support and at least one recording layer, said at least one recording layer containing at least one distinct metal layer comprising at least one metal selected from the group consisting of Sn, Bi, In, Zn, Al and Cu and said recording layer also comprising at least one distinct compound layer comprising at least one compound selected from the group consisting of CrS, Cr.sub.2 S, Cr.sub.2 S.sub.3, MoS.sub.2, MnS, FeS, FeS.sub.2, CoS, Co.sub.2 S.sub.3, NiS, Ni.sub.2 S, PdS, Cu.sub.2 S, Ag.sub.2 S, ZnS, In.sub.2 S.sub.3, In.sub.2 S.sub.2, GeS.sub.x, wherein x is a positive integer of 2 to 9, SnS, SnS.sub.2, PbS, As.sub.2 S.sub.3, Sb.sub.2 S.sub.3, Bi.sub.2 S.sub.3, MgF.sub.2, CaF.sub.2, RhF.sub.3, MoO, InO, In.sub.2 O, In.sub.2 O.sub.3, GeO, and PbO, and wherein the total thickness of all metal layers present is from to 300 to 1500 A, the total thickness of all compound layers present is from about 10 to about 200 A, and the optical density of the at least one distinct metal layer is at least about 2.0.