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Abstract
We observed nanometre-scale optical near-field induced photoisomerization on the surface of a photochromic diarylethene crystal via molecular structural changes using an optical near-field assisted atomic force microscope. A nanometre-scale concavity was formed on the sample surface due to locally induced photoisomerization. By using this optical near-field induced local photoisomerization, we succeeded in generating a pattern of alphabet characters on the surface of the diarylethene crystal below the optical wavelength scale. Further, by exploiting the photochromism of the investigated material, erasure of the generated pattern was also confirmed, where the evolution of the pattern during erasure depended on the local spatial characteristics of the crystal. These experimental findings demonstrate the fundamental abilities of photochromic crystals in dynamic memorization in nanometre-scale light–matter interactions.
Highlights
We observed nanometre-scale optical near-field induced photoisomerization on the surface of a photochromic diarylethene crystal via molecular structural changes using an optical near-field assisted atomic force microscope
The local photoisomerization triggered by near-field optical excitation of diarylethene crystals progresses in a complex manner along with branching and multivaluedness by spontaneous symmetry-breaking associated with anisotropic distortion on the nanometre scale, depending on the dynamic changes of the material structures, that is, environmental singularities
While photon information storage has been described in the literature as extremely difficult on all-optical processing[13], nanoscale photochromism coupled with optical near-fields naturally enables memorization based on the intrinsic attributes of photochromic materials
Summary
We observed nanometre-scale optical near-field induced photoisomerization on the surface of a photochromic diarylethene crystal via molecular structural changes using an optical near-field assisted atomic force microscope. By exploiting the photochromism of the investigated material, erasure of the generated pattern was confirmed, where the evolution of the pattern during erasure depended on the local spatial characteristics of the crystal These experimental findings demonstrate the fundamental abilities of photochromic crystals in dynamic memorization in nanometre-scale light–matter interactions. The local photoisomerization triggered by near-field optical excitation of diarylethene crystals progresses in a complex manner along with branching and multivaluedness by spontaneous symmetry-breaking associated with anisotropic distortion on the nanometre scale, depending on the dynamic changes of the material structures, that is, environmental singularities. The excitation was performed only on a single spatial position, and experimental investigation of two-dimensional near-field addressing of local photochromism is necessary for spatial density and integration ability verification and for achieving a deeper understanding of optical near-field induced photoisomerization on the subwavelength scale
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