Organic Charge-Transfer Complexes for High Density Storage Using a Modified Scanning Tunneling Microscope

1992 ◽  
Vol 276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shoji Yamaguchi ◽  
Carlos A. Valenzuela ◽  
Richard S. Potember

ABSTRACTWe are investigating organometallic materials which exhibit a novel fieldinduced reversible switching phenomenon. Silver and copper salts of tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) and its derivatives, prepared as polycrystalline thick films and vacuum-deposited thin films, have been imaged using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). We have recently produced images with molecular resolution of these materials. We also have demonstrated a field-induced, charge-transfer reaction driven by the electric field at the STM tip when the field generated by the STM exceeds the switching threshold of the organic charge-transfer complex. The phase transition induced by the STM tip appears as nanometer to micrometer-sized domains on the metal-TCNQ and derivatives surface. This STM-induced chemical reaction is being explored for use in a molecular-based information storage system.

1993 ◽  
Vol 311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shoji Yamaguchi ◽  
Carlos A. Valenzuela ◽  
Richard S. Potember

ABSTRACTWe are exploring high density information storage systems based on organometallic materials. Silver and copper salts of tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) and its derivatives exhibit an electrical and optical field induced reversible switching phenomenon. We have demonstrated a field-induced, charge-transfer reaction driven by the electric field at the STM tip when the field generated by the STM exceeds the switching threshold of the organic charge-transfer complex. The phase transition induced by the STM tip appears as nanometer-sized domains on the metal-TCNQ and derivatives surface. We also have shown this phase transition occur by means of optical laser irradiation. This paper discusses our plans to combine our research results in optical switching with the scanning near-field optical microscope (NSOM) to develop a very high density optical memory system. In order toassess the feasibility of this, we performed a series of experiments aimed at determining the limitations of information storage using this class of organic charge transfer complexes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 124 (39) ◽  
pp. 21635-21640
Author(s):  
Ting-Hsun Yang ◽  
Shao-Heng Yang ◽  
Yu-Chuan Chen ◽  
Darwin Kurniawan ◽  
Wei-Hung Chiang ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Rebecca W. Keller ◽  
Carlos Bustamante ◽  
David Bear

Under ideal conditions, the Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) can create atomic resolution images of different kinds of samples. The STM can also be operated in a variety of non-vacuum environments. Because of its potentially high resolution and flexibility of operation, it is now being applied to image biological systems. Several groups have communicated the imaging of double and single stranded DNA.However, reproducibility is still the main problem with most STM results on biological samples. One source of irreproducibility is unreliable sample preparation techniques. Traditional deposition methods used in electron microscopy, such as glow discharge and spreading techniques, do not appear to work with STM. It seems that these techniques do not fix the biological sample strongly enough to the substrate surface. There is now evidence that there are strong forces between the STM tip and the sample and, unless the sample is strongly bound to the surface, it can be swept aside by the tip.


Author(s):  
J. T. Woodward ◽  
J. A. N. Zasadzinski

The Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) offers exciting new ways of imaging surfaces of biological or organic materials with resolution to the sub-molecular scale. Rigid, conductive surfaces can readily be imaged with the STM with atomic resolution. Unfortunately, organic surfaces are neither sufficiently conductive or rigid enough to be examined directly with the STM. At present, nonconductive surfaces can be examined in two ways: 1) Using the AFM, which measures the deflection of a weak spring as it is dragged across the surface, or 2) coating or replicating non-conductive surfaces with metal layers so as to make them conductive, then imaging with the STM. However, we have found that the conventional freeze-fracture technique, while extremely useful for imaging bulk organic materials with STM, must be modified considerably for optimal use in the STM.


Author(s):  
Jean-Paul Revel

The last few years have been marked by a series of remarkable developments in microscopy. Perhaps the most amazing of these is the growth of microscopies which use devices where the place of the lens has been taken by probes, which record information about the sample and display it in a spatial from the point of view of the context. From the point of view of the biologist one of the most promising of these microscopies without lenses is the scanned force microscope, aka atomic force microscope.This instrument was invented by Binnig, Quate and Gerber and is a close relative of the scanning tunneling microscope. Today's AFMs consist of a cantilever which bears a sharp point at its end. Often this is a silicon nitride pyramid, but there are many variations, the object of which is to make the tip sharper. A laser beam is directed at the back of the cantilever and is reflected into a split, or quadrant photodiode.


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