Nanoscale control of unbound and bound states of fullerene C60 molecules for ultradense data storage

Abstract

The molecular-scale control of unbound and bound states of fullerene C60 molecules has been investigated. We demonstrate that an ultrathin film of C60 molecules and the use of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) realize excellent controllability of reversible switching between the unbound and bound states of C60 molecules at room temperature (RT). One of the two chemical states of C60 molecules can be selectively realized by changing the polarity of the electric field between the STM tip and the C60 film. This methodology for the chemical manipulation of unbound and bound states enables the writing, erasing, and rewriting of binary data in a C60 film with a density of 190 Tbit/inch2 at RT.