Probe‐Based Mechanical Data Storage on Polymers Made by Inverse Vulcanization

Abstract Big data and artificial intelligence are driving increasing demand for high‐density data storage. Probe‐based data storage, such as mechanical storage using an atomic force microscope tip, is a potential solution with storage densities exceeding hard disks. However, the storage medium must be modifiable on the nanoscale. While polymers are promising storage media, they face challenges with synthesis, erasing temperatures, and stability. Here, a low‐cost and robust polymer system is reported that allows repeated writing, reading and erasing. The polymer is made by inverse vulcanization, providing a network of S─S bonds that can be broken and re‐formed repeatedly. This property is leveraged in mechanical indentation to encode information, and thermal S─S metathesis and polymer re‐flow to erase. Exquisite control of indentation depth is possible over 1–30 nm. This control enables data encoding not just as a function of the presence or absence of an indent, but also indentation depth. This ternary coding increases the data density four‐fold over binary coding. Furthermore, the coding can be done at room temperature which is rare for mechanical information storage. The low cost, ease of synthesis, and dynamic S─S bonds in these polymers are a promising advance in polymer storage media for probe‐based data storage.