Electric Field Control of Spins in Molecular Magnets.

Coherent control of individual molecular spins in nanodevices is a pivotal prerequisite for fulfilling the potential promised by molecular spintronics. By applying electric field pulses during time-resolved electron spin resonance measurements, we measure the sensitivity of the spin in several antiferromagnetic molecular nanomagnets to external electric fields. We find a linear electric field dependence of the spin states in Cr_{7}Mn, an antiferromagnetic ring with a ground-state spin of S=1, and in a frustrated Cu_{3} triangle, both with coefficients of about 2 rad s^{-1}/V m^{-1}. Conversely, the antiferromagnetic ring Cr_{7}Ni, isomorphic with Cr_{7}Mn but with S=1/2, does not exhibit a detectable effect. We propose that the spin-electric field coupling may be used for selectively controlling individual molecules embedded in nanodevices.

Molecular electronic spin qubits from a spin-frustrated trinuclear copper complex.

The trinuclear copper(ii) complex [Cu3(saltag)(py)6]ClO4 (H5saltag = tris(2-hydroxybenzylidene)triaminoguanidine) was synthesized and characterized by experimental as well as theoretical methods. This complex exhibits a strong antiferromagnetic coupling (J = -298 cm-1) between the copper(ii) ions, mediated by the N-N diazine bridges of the tritopic ligand, leading to a spin-frustrated system. This compound shows a T2 coherence time of 340 ns in frozen pyridine solution, which extends to 591 ns by changing the solvent to pyridine-d5. Hence, the presented compound is a promising candidate as a building block for molecular spintronics.