AVS 51st International Symposium
    Magnetic Interfaces and Nanostructures Thursday Sessions
       Session MI-ThA

Invited Paper MI-ThA1
Semiconductive Behavior of the Single Molecule Magnets Mn@super12@-Ac, Fe@super8@Br@super8@, and V@super15@

Thursday, November 18, 2004, 2:00 pm, Room 304A

Session: Molecular Spintronics and Dynamics
Presenter: N.S. Dalal, Florida State University
Authors: N.S. Dalal, Florida State University
E.S. Choi, Florida State University
D. Zipse, Florida State University
R. Vasic, Florida State University
J.M. North, Florida State University
E. Jobiliong, Florida State University
J.S. Brooks, Florida State University
P. Kogerler, Iowa State University
Correspondent: Click to Email
Single Molecule Magnets (SMMs) are clusters of transition metals that have garnered much theoretical and experimental attention due to their ability to show magnetic hysteresis on the single molecule level, and Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling. In order to advance our understanding of these materials for potential applications, the electrical transport properties of three of the most widely studied SMMs, Mn@sub12@-Ac, Fe@sub8@Br@sub8@, and V@sub15@, as well as the polyoxovanadate cluster V@sub12@ were examined. These materials all showed semiconductive behavior, with varying transport gaps, E@suba@, for each. Under the assumption that the optical band gap is twice the magnitude of the transport gap, E@subg@ = 2 E@suba@, the magnitude of the transport gap for Mn@sub12@-Ac (0.37 eV), V@sub15@ (0.2 eV), and V@sub12@ (0.48 eV) compares well with optical band gap measurements@footnote 1@,@footnote 2@ thus verifying the value of transport measurements in electronic structure calculations for SMMs. These data should provide a sensitive basis for comparing the various theoretical calculations and, thus, for understanding the electronic structure of these materials. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@ S.M. Oppenheimer, A.B. Sushkov, J.L. Musfeldt, R.M. Achey, and N.S. Dalal, Phys. Rev. B 65, 054419 (2002).@footnote 2@ J.Choi, L.A.W. Sanderson, J.L. Musfeldt, A. Ellern, and P. Kogerler, Phys. Rev. B 68, 064412 (2003). .