Single Molecule Magnets (SMMs) are molecules that contain unpaired electrons and are able to remain magnetized after the application of a magnetic field. This property, known as slow relaxation of the magnetization, allows SMMs to have applications in different fields like information storage, spintronics or quantum computation.
Nowadays, the exact mechanisms of how slow relaxation occurs, are not completely known, but, since its discovery in 1993, this relaxation has been always associated to the magnetic anisotropy. However, very recently, a few examples against this paradigm have appeared. Those are molecules which contain isotropic paramagnetic cations like Mn(II) or Gd(III). This unexpected behaviour, makes the understanding of SMMs a major challenge for the magnetic community. In this work, led by the Magnetic Interactions and Molecular Magnetism, it is characterized, three field induced SMMs built from quasi-isotropic cations like CuII and MnII exhibiting field-induced slow relaxation of magnetization.
Quasi-isotropic SMMs: Slow relaxation of the magnetization in polynuclear CuII/MnIIcomplexes. Pilichos E., Bhunia P., Font-Bardia M., Ghosh A., Mayans J., Escuer A. Dalton Transactions. Volume 51, Issue 5, Pages 1779 – 17837. February 2022