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Materials science

Magnetic molecules back in the race

Nature volume 548, pages 400–401 (2017)Cite this article

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Single-molecule magnets have potential data-storage applications, but will need to work at a much higher temperature than has been possible. Two studies suggest that this goal could be met in the near future. See Letter p.439

More than two decades ago, it was discovered that a single molecule could have two stable magnetic states — a property called magnetic bistability — at temperatures of a few kelvin1. In principle, such molecules could be used to store information, but this would require operating temperatures approaching at least that of liquid nitrogen (about 77 K). On page 439 and writing in Angewandte Chemie, respectively, Goodwin et al.2 and Guo et al.3 report a remarkable advance in this direction. The authors demonstrate magnetic bistability in a molecule at temperatures as high as 60 K, which is twice that achieved in previous studies4.

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Figure 1: Synthesis and structure of a single-molecule magnet.

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References

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  1. Department of Chemistry 'Ugo Schiff', University of Florence, Florence, 50019, Italy

    Roberta Sessoli

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  1. Roberta Sessoli
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Correspondence to Roberta Sessoli.

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Sessoli, R. Magnetic molecules back in the race. Nature 548, 400–401 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/548400a

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