An information storage system records on a medium with a magneto-optical storage layer and a ferrimagnetic control layer. A higher power write beam is used to impose an upward magnetic orientation and a lower power write beam is used to impose a downward magnetic orientation in the domain. The control layer has an initial downward magnetic orientation, the magnetization of regions of the control layer can be inverted to an upward orientation temporarily while the region is heated above a compensation temperature. The magnetization of the region is restored to its initial downward orientation upon restoration of ambient temperature since neither the higher power nor the lower power write beam heats the control layer to its Curie temperature. The distributed optical and thermal properties of the medium are selected so that, upon heating of the medium by dissipated laser energy, the peak temperature of the control layer occurs after the peak temperature for the storage layer. When the higher power write beam is used, the domain cools through its Curie temperature before the corresponding region cools through its compensation temperature so that an upward magnetic orientation is established in the domain. When the lower power write beam is used, the domain cools through its Curie temperature after the corresponding region cools through its compensation temperature so that a downward magnetic orientation is established in the domain.