Ultrahigh-density atomic force microscopy data storage with erase capability

We report a simple atomic force microscopy-based concept for a hard disk-like data storage technology. Thermomechanical writing by heating a Si cantilever in contact with a spinning polycarbonate disk has already been reported. Here the medium has been replaced with a thin polymer layer on a Si substrate, resulting in significant improvements in storage density. With this new medium, we achieve bit sizes of 10-50 nm, leading to data densities of 500 Gbit/in.(2). We also demonstrate a novel high-speed and high-resolution thermal readback method, which uses the same Si cantilevers that are used in the writing process, and the capability to erase and rewrite data features repeatedly. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99)00109-6].