According to the present invention, there is provided a recording medium comprising a substrate, a platinum layer formed on the substrate and having a (111) plane preferentially oriented, and a fullerene single crystal thin film formed on the platinum layer, and configured to be a recording layer, wherein an average value of average surface roughness Ra's with respect to four or more visual fields measured by using an atomic force microscope in a surface of the fullerene thin film is 0.5 nm or less.

According to the present invention, there is provided a recording medium comprising a substrate, a platinum layer formed on the substrate and having a (111) plane preferentially oriented, and a fullerene single crystal thin film formed on the platinum layer, and configured to be a recording layer, wherein an average value of average surface roughness Ra's with respect to four or more visual fields measured by using an atomic force microscope in a surface of the fullerene thin film is 0.5 nm or less.

An AlTeCuZr alloy sputtering target, comprising 20 at % to 40 at % of Te, 5 at % to 20 at % of Cu, 5 at % to 15 at % of Zr and the remainder of Al, wherein a Te phase, a Cu phase and a CuTe phase are not present in a structure of the target. An object of the present invention is to provide an AlTeCuZr alloy sputtering target capable of effectively reducing particle generation, nodule formation and the like upon sputtering and further capable of reducing oxygen contained in the target.

The invention refers to an ultrafast quench based nonvolatile bistable device which consists of an active material on a passive or active substrate which changes its physical properties, after exposure to a sufficiently temporally short external perturbation causing an ultrafast quench. The perturbation can be from an external ultrashort laser pulse or ultrafast electrical pulse from an electrooptic device or any other generator of ultrashort pulses. This change of the materials properties can be detected as a change of optical properties or electrical resistance. The dielectric properties can be reverted back to their original state by the application of a heat pulse applied by an electrical heater within the device or an external laser.

The invention refers to an ultrafast quench based nonvolatile bistable device which consists of an active material on a passive or active substrate which changes its physical properties, after exposure to a sufficiently temporally short external perturbation causing an ultrafast quench. The perturbation can be from an external ultrashort laser pulse or ultrafast electrical pulse from an electrooptic device or any other generator of ultrashort pulses. This change of the materials properties can be detected as a change of optical properties or electrical resistance. The dielectric properties can be reverted back to their original state by the application of a heat pulse applied by an electrical heater within the device or an external laser.

A method of manufacturing an electronic circuit comprises: providing an electronic circuit having a first configuration in which the circuit comprises a resistive element having a first resistance, and irradiating at least a part of the resistive element with electromagnetic radiation to change the resistance of the resistive element from the first resistance to a second resistance, the second resistance being lower than the first resistance. A method of storing data comprises: receiving a piece of data to be stored; determining a number according to the data; and irradiating at least part of a resistive element with that number of pulses of electromagnetic radiation to change a resistance of the resistive element from a first resistance to a second resistance, the second resistance being lower than the first resistance. A difference between the first resistance and the second resistance is dependent on the number. Corresponding circuits and data storage systems are disclosed.