Spectroscopic Determination of the Electronic Structure of a Uranium Single-Ion Magnet

Abstract

Early actinide ions have large spin-orbit couplings and crystal field interactions, leading to large anisotropies. The success in using actinides as single-molecule magnets has so far been modest, underlining the need for rational strategies.

Indeed, the electronic structure of actinide single-molecule magnets and its relation to their magnetic properties remains largely unexplored. Here we investigate a uranium(III) single molecule magnet, [UIII{SiMe2NPh}3-tacn)(OPPh3)] (2), by means of a combination of magnetic, spectroscopic and theoretical methods, elucidating the origin of its static and dynamic magnetic properties.

Keywords

• ab initio calculations
• crystal field splitting
• electronic structure
• magnetic properties
• single-molecule magnets
• uranium