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Ambient Bistable Single Dipole Switching in a Molecular Monolayer
Author(s) -
Cui Kang,
Mali Kunal S.,
Wu Dongqing,
Feng Xinliang,
Müllen Klaus,
Walter Michael,
De Feyter Steven,
Mertens Stijn F. L.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.202004016
Subject(s) - bistability , scanning tunneling microscope , dipole , monolayer , stacking , substrate (aquarium) , molecular switch , quantum tunnelling , electric field , molecular physics , molecule , chemical physics , microscope , condensed matter physics , materials science , chemistry , optoelectronics , nanotechnology , optics , physics , oceanography , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , geology
Reported here is a molecular dipole that self‐assembles into highly ordered patterns at the liquid‐solid interface, and it can be switched at room temperature between a bright and a dark state at the single‐molecule level. Using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) under suitable bias conditions, binary information can be written at a density of up to 41 Tb cm −2 (256 Tb/in 2 ). The written information is stable during reading at room temperature, but it can also be erased at will, instantly, by proper choice of tunneling conditions. DFT calculations indicate that the contrast and switching mechanism originate from the stacking sequence of the molecular dipole, which is reoriented by the electric field between the tip and substrate.