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We use incoherent quasielastic neutron scattering to study the atomic dynamics of gold in a eutectic Au81Si19 melt. Despite the glass-forming nature of this system, the gold self-diffusivity displays an Arrhenius behavior with a low activation energy characteristic of simple liquids. At high temperatures, long-range transport of gold atoms is well described by hydrodynamic theory with a simple exponential decay of the self-correlation function. On cooling towards the melting temperature, structural relaxation crosses over to a highly stretched exponential behavior. This suggests the onset of a heterogeneous dynamics, even in the equilibrium melt, and is indicative of a very fragile liquid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The rational design of the magnetic anisotropy of molecular materials constitutes a goal of primary importance in molecular magnetism. Indeed, the applications of molecular nanomagnets, such as single‐molecule magnets and molecular magnetic refrigerants, depend on the full control over this property. Axially anisotropic magnetic systems are frequently classified as easy axis or easy plane, depending on whether the lowest energy is obtained by application of a magnetic field parallelly or perpendicularly to the unique axis. Here, the magnetic anisotropy of three lanthanide complexes is studied as a function of magnetic field and temperature. It is found that for two of these the type of magnetic anisotropy switches as a function of these parameters. Thus, this paper experimentally demonstrates that the magnetic anisotropy is not uniquely defined by the intrinsic electronic structure of the systems in question but can also be reversibly switched using external stimuli: temperature and magnetic field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The syntheses, structures, and magnetic properties of four new complex salts, (PPN){[MnIII(salphen)(MeOH)]2[MIII(CN)6]}.7MeOH (Mn2M.7MeOH) (M = Fe, Ru, Os and Co; PPN+ = bis(triphenylphosphoranylidene)ammonium cation; H2salphen = N,N'-bis(salicylidene)-1,2-diaminobenzene), and a mixed metal Co/Os analogue (PPN){[MnIII(salphen)(MeOH)]2[CoIII0.92OsIII0.08(CN)6]}.7MeOH were undertaken. It was found that all compounds exhibit switchable single-molecule magnet (SMM) and exchange-bias behavior depending on the interstitial methanol content. The pristine (PPN){[Mn(salphen)(MeOH)]2[Os(CN)6]}.7MeOH (Mn2Os.7MeOH) behaves as an SMM with an effective barrier for the magnetization reversal, (Ueff/kB), of 17.1 K. Upon desolvation, Mn2Os exhibits an increase of Ueff/kB to 42.0 K and an opening of the hysteresis loop observable at 1.8 K. Mn2Os.7MeOH shows also exchange-bias behavior with magnetic hysteresis loops exhibiting a shift in the quantum tunneling to 0.25 T from zero-field. The FeIII and RuIII analogues were prepared as reference compounds for assessing the effect of the 5d versus 4d and 3d metal ions on the SMM properties. These compounds are also SMMs and exhibit similar effects but with lower energy barriers. These findings underscore the importance of introducing heavy transition elements into SMMs to improve their slow relaxation of the magnetization properties. The (PPN){[MnIII(salphen)(MeOH)]6[CoIII(CN)6]}.7MeOH (Mn2Co.7MeOH) analogue with a diamagnetic CoIII central atom and the mixed Co/Os (PPN){[MnIII(salphen)(MeOH)]2[CoIII0.92OsIII0.08(CN)6]}.7MeOH (Mn6Co/Os.7MeOH) "magnetically diluted" system with a 9:1 Co/Os metal ratio were prepared in order tofurther probe the nature of the energy barrier increase upon desolvation of Mn2Os. In addition, inelastic neutron scattering and frequency-domain Fourier-transform THz electron paramagnetic resonance spectra obtained on Mn2Os.7MeOH and Mn2Os in combination with the magnetic data revealed the presence of anisotropic exchange interactions between MnIII and OsIII ions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We demonstrate that a Ni–Mn oxide partially inverted spinel (Ni1−ν Mn ν )[Ni ν Mn2−ν ]O4 having inversion degree ν ≈ 0.8 and produced by a modified polymeric precursor method exhibits behaviour previously reported only in monophased samples. The structure of the specimen was determined using Rietveld analysis of X-ray and neutron powder diffraction data, showing that at room temperature the material crystallizes in the space group with a lattice constant a = 8.392 Å. Combining magnetization measurements with neutron powder diffraction, we show that the magnetic structure of this spinel is associated with the interplay between the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic lattices which coexist due to the cations' presence on both tetrahedral and octahedral sites. Our analysis of the neutron diffraction data confirms the postulated magnetic structure involving a star-like moment arrangement, arising from competition for the B (octahedral) spinel sites by the Ni and Mn cations. Finally, we show that strong magnetic fluctuations are observed in the inelastic neutron scattering data. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights: [•] We examined a Tb based single molecule magnet by ac susceptibility and QENS. [•] We found two distinct magnetic relaxations in a wide time range from 0.1ms to 1ps. [•] The slower relaxation corresponds to the thermally activated tunneling process. [•] The faster one couples with the motion of H atoms around the magnetic ions. [•] The two relaxations exhibit a crossover around 100ns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report an inelastic neutron-scattering investigation of the longitudinal acoustic modes of C60 chains confined inside single walled carbon nanotubes. We take advantage of the orientations of the chains within the plane of the pellet sample to isolate their scattering signatures in the (Q,ω) space, which we follow as a function of temperature from 260 K up to 1100 K. The results show the progressive evolution of the confined chain from a one-dimensional (ID) crystal to a linear liquid, the transition occurring within a temperature range of ∼150 K centered around 600K. The comparison of the data obtained on monomer and polymer peapods allows extracting the speed of sound in the monomer crystalline chains (vmono = 3.5 km s-1, vpoly/vmono= 1.7). We find that the sound velocity is further reduced by half in the liquid state which reveals that the melting is not only due to harmonic additive thermal fluctuations, but that anharmonic terms in the intermolecular potential play an important role at high temperatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]