Chinese Scientists Spin Molecular Hard Disk Drive Idea
Blocks&Files, Tuesday, March 4th, 2025
Chinese scientists have devised an organic so-called molecular hard drive for archiving with multi-bit encrypted storage molecules written and read using an atomic force microscope.
The notion is presented in a Nature paper, Molecular HDD logic for encrypted massive data storage, published in February, and says 'molecular electronics distinguish themselves with extreme potential for ultrahigh density information storage and logic applications.'
The basic HDD unit consists of ~200 organometallic complex molecules (OCM) deployed in a self-assembly monolayer (SAM) configuration. They are read and written with a conductive atomic force microscope (C-AFM) tip, which has a front-end radius of 25 nm. Digital information is written by altering the physiochemical states of the molecules, stored as the molecules' redox (reduction-oxidation) and ion accumulation state, and read by sensing tiny bit currents in the material.