Ultrahigh-density atomic force microscopy data storage with erase capability

Abstract

We report a simple atomic force microscopy-based concept for a hard disk-like data storage technology. Thermomechanical writing by heating a Si cantilever in contact with a spinning polycarbonate disk has already been reported. Here the medium has been replaced with a thin polymer layer on a Si substrate, resulting in significant improvements in storage density. With this new medium, we achieve bit sizes of 10–50 nm, leading to data densities of 500 Gbit/in.2. We also demonstrate a novel high-speed and high-resolution thermal readback method, which uses the same Si cantilevers that are used in the writing process, and the capability to erase and rewrite data features repeatedly.