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Magnetic materials

Quantum spin chains go organic

Nature Chemistry volume 15, pages 12–13 (2023)Cite this article

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An organic quantum magnet has been prepared in short chains of porphyrin derivatives through a combination of on-surface synthesis and atom manipulation using the tip of a scanning probe microscope.

Our understanding of the various states of condensed matter is generally classified in terms of different symmetries, which change at phase transitions (for example, with a change in crystal structure). This can lead to a change in properties, such as the emergence of magnetic long-range order in magnetic materials below a certain critical temperature. In the 1980s, however, Thouless, Haldane, Kosterlitz (who shared the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics) and others pointed out the existence of another kind of phase transition, related instead to the distinct topology of the electronic structure within materials.

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Fig. 1: S = 1 Haldane chain built from diradical porphyrin units.

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  1. Twitter: @nanosurflab

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  1. Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic

    P. Jelínek

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Jelínek, P. Quantum spin chains go organic. Nat. Chem. 15, 12–13 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-022-01112-x

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