Recent progress in diarylethene as a photoswitching unit

Based on summarizing diversified performance of the diarylethene compounds, this review has a closer look of properties that can be photoswitched by using diarylethenes as a photoswitching of fluorescence, fluorescence resonance energy transfer, photoswitching of electrical conductivity, magnetism, liquid crystal and muti-addressable photochromic switches. The effect of the modality of the diarylethene compounds on the property of photoswitching is also introduced. Some future research topics of optical storage materials are discussed.