ARTIST (Alternative Routes Towards Information Storage and Transport at the atomic and molecular scale) is a 3 year (Feb. 2010-Jan. 2013) European project funded by the ICT-FET OPEN (Future and Emerging Technologies Open Scheme) program 

ARTIST is a very exploratory project aiming to demonstrate the feasibility of using radically new methods based on generic properties of molecules such as  intramolecular charge transfer, « non electronic » proton transfer, molecular mechanics, covalent self-assembling and single electron charging at distance. These molecular devices will be addressed directly from the macro/micro-scale by non-contact energy transfer, by plasmonics or electrostatics.

This project is based on recent breakthroughs by the project partners, which provide the basis for formulating an integrated way of addressing, transferring and storing the information at the molecular/atomic level. These spectacular results will be used as the starting points of this project to:

- prepare in situ large molecular oligomers from smaller precursors , metal-molecule complexes

- image molecular orbitals

- perform complex molecular movements

- charge/discharge single atoms

- switch molecules by electronic excitation, electrical fields , prototropy

- detect the charge state of an adatom by NC-AFM

- address molecules by plasmonics

The three components targeted by the ARTIST project are: addressing from the macro/micro scale to the nanoscale (atoms/molecules), or between nanoscale objects, and transfer of the information. A secondary aspect concerns the eventual storage of this information. However, at this level, these divisions are somewhat over-simplified since many fundamental processes are common to more than one component of these divisions: