Abstract

We are investigating organometallic materials that exhibit a novel field-induced reversible switching phenomenon. Silver and copper charge transfer complexes of tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ), its derivatives, and other related acceptors prepared as solution-grown polycrystalline thick films, and vacuum-deposited thin films have been studied using scanning tunneling microscopic methods (STM). 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.¹ Figure 1 shows an example of high-density storage where the STM was used to produce five consecutive dots on a Cu-TCNQ thin film and three on a Ag-TCNQ thin film. The spot size achieved with this technique is about 100 nanometers.

© 1993 Optical Society of America