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Origin of ferromagnetic exchange interactions in a fullerene–organic compound

Nature volume 407, pages 883–885 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

Organic ferromagnets, which exhibit exchange interactions between unpaired electrons in π-orbitals, are rare1,2,3,4,5,6, and the origin of ferromagnetism in these compounds has so far remained unexplained. Tetrakis(dimethylamino)ethylene–fullerene[60] (TDAE–C60) shows a transition to a ferromagnetic state with fully saturated s = 1/2 molecular spins at the relatively high Curie temperature (for organic materials) of 16 K (ref. 4). It has been suggested7,8,9 that the orientations of the C60 molecules may be important for ferromagnetism in this material, but in the absence of structural data at low temperatures there has been little progress towards understanding these microscopic interactions. Here we report the results of a comparative structural study of two different magnetic forms of TDAE–C60 crystals at low temperatures, correlating the structural properties—in particular, the intermolecular orientations—with the magnetic properties. We find that both ferromagnetism and spin-glass-like ordering are possible in this material, and depend on the orientational state of C60 molecules. This resolves the apparent contradictions posed by different macroscopic measurements4,10,11,12,13,14, and opens the way to a microscopic understanding of π-electron ferromagnetic exchange interactions in organic materials.

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Figure 1: Magnetic behaviour and a.c. susceptibility of PM (α′-phase) and FM (α-phase) samples of TDAE–C60.
Figure 2: A schematic diagram of the C60 molecular orientations in the a–b plane for the PM (left) and FM structures (right).
Figure 3: Projections of two neighbouring C60 units of TDAE–C60 along the direction from C60 centre to C60 centre in the [001] direction.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Molecular Science , Okazaki, 444-8585, Japan

    Bakhyt Narymbetov & Hayao Kobayashi

  2. Institute Josef Stefan, Jamova 39, Ljubljana, 1000, Slovenia

    Ales Omerzu, Viktor V. Kabanov & Dragan Mihailovic

  3. Electrotechnical Laboratory, 1-1-4 Umezono, Tsukuba, 305–8568 , Ibaraki, Japan

    Madoka Tokumoto

Authors
  1. Bakhyt Narymbetov
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  4. Madoka Tokumoto
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  5. Hayao Kobayashi
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  6. Dragan Mihailovic
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Narymbetov, B., Omerzu, A., Kabanov, V. et al. Origin of ferromagnetic exchange interactions in a fullerene–organic compound. Nature 407, 883–885 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35038032

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