Molecular memory is a term for data storage technologies that use molecular species as the data storage element, rather than e.g. circuits, magnetics, inorganic materials or physical shapes.
One approach to molecular memories is based on special compounds such as porphyrin-based polymers which are capable of storing electric charge.
Once a certain voltage threshold is achieved the material oxidizes, releasing an electric charge.
The properties of the material allow for a much greater capacitance per unit area than with conventional DRAM memory, thus potentially leading to smaller and cheaper integrated circuits.
[2] In 2018, researches from the University of Jyväskylä in Finland, developed a molecular memory which can memorize the direction of a magnetic field for long periods of time after being switched off at extremely low temperatures, which would aid in enhancing the storage capacity of hard disk drives without enlarging their physical size.