A novel push-pull azo dye-doped polymer film has been developed for write-once optical recording. The absorption spectra of the spin-coated thin films show a strong and broad absorption region at 400～550 nm, which matches well with the wavelength of Ar+-laser. The optical recording performance of the azo dye-doped polymer thin films shows that higher reflectivity contrast can be obtained at lower writing power and writing pulse width using the Ar-+-laser (514.5 nm) irradiation. These results demonstrate that the single layer of azo dye-doped PMMA thin film is a promising candidate for short-wavelength optical recording.