Magnetic cluster systems can be considered as nanomagnets consisting of a small number of interacting spins that are magnetically isolated from the neighboring clusters of the compound by nonmagnetic ligands. Inelastic neutron scattering is a powerful experimental tool for the study of magnetic clusters, since it provides direct access to energy splittings. The present work presents the underlying concepts, which are illustrated for some representative examples such as single-molecule magnets, diluted magnets and magnetic polarons. It is shown that -besides the dominant Heisenberg interaction -higher-order exchange terms are often needed to rationalize the experimental data.

The oxygen isotope effect on the relaxation rate of crystal-field excitations in the slightly underdoped high-temperature superconductor HoBa2Cu4O8 has been investigated by means of inelastic neutron scattering. For the 16O compound there is clear evidence for the opening of an electronic gap in the normal state at T(*) approximately 170 K far above T(c) = 79 K. Upon oxygen isotope substitution ( 16O vs 18O) T(c) decreases marginally to 78.5 K, whereas T(*) is shifted to about 220 K. This huge isotope shift observed for T(*) which is absent in NMR and NQR experiments suggests that the mechanism leading to an isotope effect on the pseudogap has to involve a time scale in the range 10(-8)>>tau>10(-13) s.

Inelastic neutron scattering and magnetic susceptibility measurements have been performed on the distorted perovskite NdGaO3. The magnetic susceptibility data show a Curie-Weiss behaviour with an effective magnetic moment close to 3.6 mu B per mole of Nd ions. No long-range magnetic ordering was detected in the temperature range 2-300 K. The inelastic neutron spectra observed at T=12 K exhibit four peaks of magnetic origin between 11 and 7D meV which can be unambiguously assigned to the complete crystalline-electric-field splitting pattern in the ground-state J multiplet 4I9/2 of the Nd3+ ions. We analysed the spectra in terms of geometrical considerations based on the actual C2 site symmetry of Nd3+. The best agreement between the experimental spectra and the calculated level structure was obtained for a model that takes into account the three nearest-neighbouring coordination polyhedra associated with the O2-, Ga3+ and Nd3+ ions as well as J-mixing between all multiplets of the 4I term. We conclude that single-particle crystal-field theory adequately explains the majority of magnetic and crystal-field properties of NdGaO3.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.Cover Illustration: The scene depicts an incoming and outgoing neutron scattered on a single crystal of ZnS, to visualize the moving neutron the incoming and outgoing neutrons are shown in decreasing degrees of opacity.

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