Write, read, erase materials for 3D optical memory devices

Several new photochromic fluorescent materials have been developed to be used as write, read, erase media for 3D two-photon optical memory devices. These materials are of the substituted fulgides family and were specially synthesized by us for 3D memory devices. Both the read and write forms of these materials were found to be stable at room temperature and their read, colored form, emit strong fluorescence, while the write, colorless form, does not fluoresce. Their spectroscopic and kinetic properties were measured and the quantum efficiency for writing reading and erasing were determined. In addition the kinetics of the photoprocesses involved in the write-read-erase cycles were also measured. These data suggest that these materials are potentially suitable for use in rewritable optical memory devises.