Neutron scattering studies of magnetic molecular spin clusters

✍ Scribed by G Chaboussant; R Basler; A Sieber; S.T Ochsenbein; H.-U Güdel

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 284 KB
• Volume: 350
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0921-4526
• DOI: 10.1016/j.physb.2004.03.015

✦ Synopsis

Molecular magnets are crystalline materials made up of interacting magnetic centres within each molecule. Each such ''spin-cluster'' is magnetically well isolated from its neighbours due to the surrounding ligands. The resulting magnetic properties are governed by exchange interactions between neighbouring spins and magneto-crystalline anisotropy. We present a brief overview of the salient features observed in three very different molecular magnets (Mn 4 , Ni 12 and V 15 ) where magnetic frustration plays a crucial role. It is demonstrated that Inelastic Neutron Scattering (INS) is an excellent technique to elucidate complex behaviour associated with geometrically frustrated molecular magnets.