Information processing apparatus, and electrode substrate and information recording medium used in the apparatus

An information processing apparatus comprising:

• an information recording medium, said information recording medium comprising a substrate, at least one noble metal planar crystal formed on said substrate, as an electrode layer, and a recording layer provided on said electrode layer, wherein said noble metal planar crystal is made of a single crystal having an electrode surface forming at least a facet of (111) plane orientation and a boundary of said single crystal surface is substantially linear;
• a probe electrode disposed in close proximity to said medium;
• a first voltage applying circuit for applying a pulse voltage between said medium and said probe electrode;
• a second voltage applying circuit for applying a bias voltage between said medium and said probe electrode;
• wherein
• information is written onto said medium by an application of said pulse voltage and said information is readable from said medium by an application of said bias voltage.

An information processing apparatus comprising:

• an information recording medium, said information recording medium comprising a substrate, an electrode layer of a noble metal crystal joined on said substrate, and a recording layer provided on said electrode layer, said noble metal crystal exhibiting a substantially linear domain boundary and a plane orientation dispersion angle measured by X-ray analysis of no more than about 1.degree.;
• a probe electrode disposed in close proximity to said medium;
• a first voltage applying circuit for applying a pulse voltage between said medium and said probe electrode;
• a second voltage applying circuit for applying a bias voltage between said medium and said probe electrode;
• wherein
• information is written onto said medium by an application of said pulse voltage and said information is readable from said medium by an application of said bias voltage.

An information processing method comprising the steps of:

• providing an information recording medium, comprising a substrate, at least one noble metal planar crystal formed on said substrate as an electrode layer and a recording layer provided on said electrode layer, wherein said noble planar metal crystal is made of a single crystal having an electrode surface forming at least a facet of (111) plane orientation and a boundary of said single crystal surface is substantially linear, said recording layer consisting of at least one layer of monomolecular film of an organic compound, wherein said recording layer has a thickness ranging from about 5 to about 300 .ANG., has a memory effect, and further comprises a track;
• arranging a probe electrode in close proximity to said medium;
• applying a pulse voltage between said medium and said probe electrode, thereby recording an information by imparting a perturbation to a surface of said medium by selectively generating disturbance;
• and applying a bias voltage between said medium and said probe electrode to read the information of said medium.