Jia Sun, Brad Payne, Greg Szulczewski, and Silas Blackstock (February, 2006)
WHAT: Redox-gradient dendrimers (RGDs) such as 8CN-4AA/PD have been designed to make amorphous films which will hold on to charge within the molecules (rather than conduct the charge). The 2 x 2 àŽ’¼m2 scans shown map the surface electric potential of the 8CN-4AA/PD film after electrification by the a conducting AFM tip. The images show the creation of a positive charge domain whose diffusion may be tracked in real time.
SO WHAT: The monitoring of charge diffusion in real time of these "slow" charge transport materials allows us to investigate and optimize the electric charge-retention properties of the RGD media which combine the chemical redox stability and ease of charging of hole-transport materials with the temporal translational stability of charges on electrified high-dielectrics. Applications of the RGDs would be as new materials for nanoscale data storage, memory operations, and switching.
