An optical recording medium is made by sputtering a polymeric material in an evacuated chamber to form an under layer on a substrate having a preformed grooved pattern of prepits and pregrooves, and then forming a recording layer on the underlayer in the chamber continuously after forming the underlayer. Said under layer is made of a high polymeric material which can be melted, sublimated, or decomposed at a lower temperature than the melting point, the sublimating point, or the decomposing temperature of said recording layer. Accordingly, said under layer can relax the thermal shock transferred from said substrate into said recording layer, and the deformation of said substrate can be prevented, even though a laser beam for playback is repeatedly radiated onto said recording layer, and said optical recording medium has a larger recording sensitivity than the recording sensitivity of an optical recording disc of a prior art.