title: A kilobyte rewritable atomic memory.
abstract: The advent of devices based on single dopants, such as the single-atom transistor, the single-spin magnetometer and the single-atom memory, has motivated the quest for strategies that permit the control of matter with atomic precision. Manipulation of individual atoms by low-temperature scanning tunnelling microscopy provides ways to store data in atoms, encoded either into their charge state, magnetization state or lattice position. A clear challenge now is the controlled integration of these individual functional atoms into extended, scalable atomic circuits. Here, we present a robust digital atomic-scale memory of up to 1 kilobyte (8,000 bits) using an array of individual surface vacancies in a chlorine-terminated Cu(100) surface. The memory can be read and rewritten automatically by means of atomic-scale markers and offers an areal density of 502 terabits per square inch, outperforming state-of-the-art hard disk drives by three orders of magnitude. Furthermore, the chlorine vacancies are found to be stable at temperatures up to 77 K, offering the potential for expanding large-scale atomic assembly towards ambient conditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Quantum Nanoscience, Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology, Lorentzweg 1, 2628 CJ Delft, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: F E
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1520-1609
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Kalff
authors.affiliation: Department of Quantum Nanoscience, Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology, Lorentzweg 1, 2628 CJ Delft, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Rebergen
authors.affiliation: Department of Quantum Nanoscience, Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology, Lorentzweg 1, 2628 CJ Delft, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fahrenfort
authors.affiliation: Department of Quantum Nanoscience, Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology, Lorentzweg 1, 2628 CJ Delft, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Girovsky
authors.affiliation: Department of Quantum Nanoscience, Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology, Lorentzweg 1, 2628 CJ Delft, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Toskovic
authors.affiliation: International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), Avenida Mestre José Veiga, 4715-310 Braga, Portugal.
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Lado
authors.affiliation: International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), Avenida Mestre José Veiga, 4715-310 Braga, Portugal.|Departamento de Física Aplicada, Universidad de Alicante, San Vicente del Raspeig 03690, Spain.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fernández-Rossier
authors.affiliation: Department of Quantum Nanoscience, Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology, Lorentzweg 1, 2628 CJ Delft, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: A F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Otte