Wen, Y. Q.; Wang, J. X.; Hu, J. P.; Jiang, L.; Gao, H. J.; Song, Y. L.; Zhu, D. B., Adv. Mater. 2006, 18 (15), 1983-1987.
An organic donor-acceptor molecule, 4'-cyano-2,6-dimethyl-4-hydroxy azobenzene (CDHAB), has been designed and synthesized for data storage. Reversible nanometer-scale data storage is realized on its highly ordered self-assembled thin film by applying voltage pulses between a scanning tunneling microscope tip and the substrate. The changes in the conductance of the CDHAB film result in the formation of the information dots (see figure).