There is increasing interest in the use of lanthanide ions for quantum information processing and in single-molecule magnets. Because of this, researchers are seeking to understand the nature of magnetic interactions in lanthanide compounds.
An international team of researchers studied the magnetic interactions within Ln dimetallic compounds; compounds which contain atoms of two metallic elements. They aimed to define a series of detailed benchmark measurements on which to build a transferable theoretical framework and used electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy to directly probe the lowest-lying exchange states.
In work published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the team directly probed the magnetic exchange interactions within two asymmetric dimetallic compounds using EPR spectroscopy, which they were then able to accurately model. They collected inelastic neutron scattering (INS) spectra on the LET, IRIS, and MARI spectrometers, and used them alongside far-infra-red measurements to support calculations for identifying the origin of the magnetic signals for each site in the molecule.
Their results will contribute to the development of theoretical models of magnetic exchange. Future theoretical studies may be able to demonstrate the feasibility of tailoring lanthanide compounds for technological use.
Related publication: “Measurement of Magnetic Exchange in Asymmetric Lanthanide Dimetallics: Toward a Transferable Theoretical Framework" J. Am. Chem. Soc.2018, 140, 7, 2504-2513, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.7b10714
Authors: Marcus J. Giansiracusa (The University of Manchester), Eufemio Moreno-Pineda (The University of Manchester), Riaz Hussain (Università di Parma), Raphael Marx (Universität Stuttgart), María Martínez Prada (Universität Stuttgart), Petr Neugebauer (Universität Stuttgart), Susan Al-Badran (The University of Manchester), David Collison (The University of Manchester), Floriana Tuna (The University of Manchester), Joris van Slageren (Universität Stuttgart), Stefano Carretta (Università di Parma), Tatiana Guidi, (ISIS) Eric J. L. McInnes (The University of Manchester), Richard E. P. Winpenny (The University of Manchester), and Nicholas F. Chilton (The University of Manchester).
Instrument: LET, IRIS and MARI
