A storage media for storing information having a substrate. The substrate has an upper surface and a molecular weight greater than 5,000. Preferably the material is a polymer. The material has a plurality of piles of molecular chains in selected areas formed by pushing the molecular chains of the material on its upper surface to the selected area mechanically with a mechanical tool. The piles represent written information. The mechanical tool is preferably an atomic force microscope. Another aspect of the present invention is a method for storing information having the steps of selecting a material substrate having an upper surface and pushing molecules on the upper surface into a molecular pile at selected locations.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
The present application is a divisional of application Ser. No. 08/960,693 filed Oct. 29, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,017,618.
A re-recordable data storage medium of one embodiment includes a substrate layer, a phase-changeable layer, and an intermediate layer. The substrate layer has a semiconductor type selected from p-type and n-type. The phase-changeable layer has a first phase corresponding to a first storable logical value, and a second phase corresponding to a second storable logical value. The phase-changeable layer has a semiconductor type identical to that of the substrate layer. The intermediate layer is between the phase-changeable layer and the substrate layer, and has a semiconductor type opposite to that of the phase-changeable and substrate layer. The substrate, phase-changeable, and intermediate layers act as a transistor under selective illumination of the phase-changeable layer.
In a method of writing information in a data storage medium comprising an optical information medium which has a polymer carrier (1), atoms and/or molecules (4) that change the refractive index are introduced into the polymer carrier (1), at individual locations associated with information units, as a function of the information to be entered.
A re-recordable data storage medium is disclosed. The medium in one embodiment includes a phase-changeable layer and an intermediate layer. A junction between the intermediate layer and another layer of the medium provides a conduction barrier under no illumination that is substantially diminished under illumination of the regions of the phase-changeable layer that are in the appropriate phase.
The invention provides high performance cantilevers with optimal combinations of high resonant frequency and low force constant. In one aspect, AFM cantilevers with spring constants in the range 1-10.sup.-6 N/m with (fundamental) resonant frequencies in aqueous solutions of 0.1-100 MHz are provided. A high performance cantilever may be made by focused ion beam milling or electron deposition. The high performance cantilevers allow faster scanning, increase the temporal resolution of force measurement, improve measurement sensitivity by reducing cantilever noise, and improve sensitivity by reducing cantilever spring constant.
An example data storage medium includes an optical information carrier which comprises a polymer carrier, which is set up to store information, and, additionally, a layer. The layer comprises a dye and can be optically changed locally for the purpose of storing information.
