No abstract

[ErW10O36]9- is the first polyoxometalate behaving as a single-molecule magnet (SMM). It shows frequency-dependent out-of-phase magnetization and a thermally activated single relaxation process with an effective barrier of 55.8 K. This single lanthanide ion polyoxometalate is the inorganic analogue of the bis(phthalocyaninato)lanthanide SMMs, both exhibiting very similar ligand field symmetries around the lanthanide ion (idealized D4d). It is chemically stable and offers new avenues for organization and processing of single-molecule magnets. Furthermore, it can be made free from nuclear spins and opens the possibility to be used for studies of decoherence on unimolecular qubits.

In this review we discuss the relevance of polyoxometalate (POM) chemistry to provide model objects in molecular magnetism. We present several potential applications in nanomagnetism, in particular, in molecular spintronics and quantum computing.