New information storage elements on the basis of metastable electronic states

Abstract

A new class of photochromic substances is introduced, which are suitable for information storage elements with extremely high capacity on the basis of nearly infinitely long-living metastable electronic states. Their life time is longer than 10 9 s. Absorption spectra show the wavelength region, in which the write- read- and erase-cycle can be performed. The storage velocity is measured with time-dependent transmission spectroscopy. As the change of the absorption is a function of light intensity and time, every transmission value between zero and saturation can be used as an additional parameter for the storage of information.