Scanning tunneling microscope-based thermochemical hole burning on a series of charge transfer complexes

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A thermochemical hole burning effect was observed on a series of 7, 7, 8, 8-tetra cyanoquinodimethane charge transfer complexes when applying a suitable voltage pulse using scanning tunneling microscope, which is attributed to the localized thermochemical decomposition of the complex induced by the current heating effect. The decomposition reaction evolves the low boiling point decomposition components of the charge transfer complex, leaving a nanometer-sized hole on the crystal surface. This effect demonstrates the possibility of creating a ultrahigh density thermochemical hole burning memory, in which information bit is recorded as a hole.