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Letter

Nature Materials 8, 194–197 (1 March 2009) | doi:10.1038/nmat2374

Magnetic memory of a single-molecule quantum magnet wired to a gold surface

Matteo Mannini , Francesco Pineider , Philippe Sainctavit , Chiara Danieli , Edwige Otero , Corrado Sciancalepore , Anna Maria Talarico , Marie-Anne Arrio , Andrea Cornia , Dante Gatteschi & Roberta Sessoli

In the field of molecular spintronics, the use of magnetic molecules for information technology is a main target and the observation of magnetic hysteresis on individual molecules organized on surfaces is a necessary step to develop molecular memory arrays. Although simple paramagnetic molecules can show surface-induced magnetic ordering and hysteresis when deposited on ferromagnetic surfaces, information storage at the molecular level requires molecules exhibiting an intrinsic remnant magnetization, like the so-called single-molecule magnets (SMMs).