Pressure induced enhancement of the magnetic ordering temperature in rhenium(IV) monomers.

Woodall, Christopher H; Craig, Gavin A; Prescimone, Alessandro; Misek, Martin; Cano, Joan; Faus, Juan; Probert, Michael R; Parsons, Simon et al. · Nat Commun · 2016

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Materials that demonstrate long-range magnetic order are synonymous with information storage and the electronics industry, with the phenomenon commonly associated with metals, metal alloys or metal oxides and sulfides. A lesser known family of magnetically ordered complexes are the monometallic compounds of highly anisotropic d-block transition metals; the 'transformation' from isolated zero-dimensional molecule to ordered, spin-canted, three-dimensional lattice being the result of through-space interactions arising from the combination of large magnetic anisotropy and spin-delocalization from metal to ligand which induces important intermolecular contacts. Here we report the effect of pressure on two such mononuclear rhenium(IV) compounds that exhibit long-range magnetic order under ambient conditions via a spin canting mechanism, with T<sub>c</sub> controlled by the strength of the intermolecular interactions. As these are determined by intermolecular distance, 'squeezing' the molecules closer together generates remarkable enhancements in ordering temperatures, with a linear dependence of T<sub>c</sub> with pressure.