Lanthanide Single-Molecule Magnets

Researchers demonstrate that lanthanide single-molecule magnets (SMM) have the potential for new technological applications. SMMs can be considered as molecular analogues of classical bulk ferromagnets, making it possible to develop them for applications involving the storage and processing of digital information. The molecular nature of SMMs offers unique attributes that will allow information to be stored with higher densities and to be processed at significantly high speeds. Completely new applications of SMMs have also been considered, including in the development of molecular spintronics. SMM-based technology can only be realized when two major problems have been solved. Researchers will need to address the challenge of designing and synthesizing efficient SMMs that function at temperatures of practical use or which show physics beyond those achieved with classical magnets.