Fluorescent properties can be useful not only for tracking individual molecules within a microenvironment, but also in molecular-scale opto-electronics. Here we use external photostimulation to switch the fluorescence on and off from a single photochromic molecule embedded in a polymer film. This digital response is due to photo-isomerization of the molecule, which may eventually find application in erasable optical data-storage elements.

1. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyushu University and CREST, Japan Science and Technology, Hakozaki 6-10-1, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan
2. Department of Chemistry, School of Science and Technology, Kwansei Gakuin University, Gakuen 2-1, Sanda 669-1337, Japan

Correspondence to: Masahiro Irie¹ e-mail: Email: irie@cstf.kyushu-u.ac.jp