Ferroelectric Probe Storage Devices

Abstract

A probe storage device consists of a probe and a medium, where the probe emits energy to the medium to write and read information and the medium stores the information. As such, in a broad sense, most of the mechanically addressing storage devices such as hard disk drives (HDDs) and optical disk drives (ODDs) can be called probe storage devices. The needs for ever-increasing information storage density in the mobile gadgets have driven the research and development of probe storage devices to find read/write mechanism that can scale down to nanometer scale other than existing HDDs and ODDs as they are approaching their storage density limits. Here we have reviewed the history of probe storage devices with special emphasis on ferroelectric materials. Ferroelectric materials offer an ultimate information storage density, as the ingredient of bit could be as small as a few unit cells or 1.2 nm in size. The tool to write information is very simple and the reader is available in various forms including field effect transistors and capacitors. Well-established hard disk drive system or newly developed micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) can be the candidates for realizing the device.