Study of an Organic Fluorescent Material for Nanoscale Data Storage by Scanning Tunneling Microscope

In this paper, organic thin films of a fluorescent material 5,6-Bis-[4-(naphthalene-1-yl-phenylamino)-phenyl]-pyrazine-2,3- dicarbonitrile (BNPPDC) were prepared by a vacuum deposition method. The typical I-V curve of the film exhibits a favorable roomtemperature bistability. Further recording experiments have been performed with a scanning tunneling microscope, which confirmed that the thin film of the donor-π-acceptor fluorescent material could certainly be applied for reversible nanoscale data storage. The average size of the recorded marks is about 7 nm. Mechanism analyses suggest that the formation of the recording dots is due to the local change of electrical property of the thin film, and the intermolecular charge transfer induced by an electric field is proposed as the reason for the change.