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The Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chain is a canonical model for understanding many-body gaps that emerge in quantum magnets, and as a result, there has been significant work on this class of materials for much of the past century. Chiral chains, on the other hand, have received markedly less attention. [Cu(pym)(H 2 O) 4 ]SiF 6 ·H 2 O (pym = pyrimidine) is an S = 1/2 chiral antiferromagnet with an unconventional spin gap and no long-range ordering at zero field, features that distinguish it from more conventional spin chains that host simple phase diagrams and no magnetoelectric coupling. Here, we report pulsed magnetic field electrical polarization measurements, strong magnetoelectric coupling, and extraordinary magnetic field - temperature phase diagrams for this system. In addition to three low field transitions, we find a series of phase transitions between 40 and 70 T that depend on the magnetic field direction. The observation of electric polarization in a material with a nonpolar crystal structure implies symmetry-breaking magnetic ordering that creates a polar axis - a mechanism that we discuss in terms of significant interactions between the chiral chains as well as Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya effects. Further, we find second-order magnetoelectric coupling, allowing us to deduce the magnetic point group of the highest polarization phase. These findings are in contrast to expectations for an unordered one-dimensional spin chain and reveal a significantly greater complexity of behavior in applied field.

Vibrations play a prominent role in magnetic relaxation processes of molecular spin qubits as they couple to spin states, leading to the loss of quantum information. Direct experimental determination of vibronic coupling is crucial to understand and control the spin dynamics of these nano-objects, which represent the limit of miniaturization for quantum devices. Herein, we measure the magneto-infrared properties of the molecular spin qubit system Na 9 [Ho(W 5 O 18 ) 2 ]·35H 2 O. Our results place significant constraints on the pattern of crystal field levels and the vibrational excitations allowing us to unravel vibronic decoherence pathways in this system. We observe field-induced spectral changes near 63 and 370 cm -1 that are modeled in terms of odd-symmetry vibrations mixed with f -manifold crystal field excitations. The overall extent of vibronic coupling in Na 9 [Ho(W 5 O 18 ) 2 ]·35H 2 O is limited by a modest coupling constant (on the order of 0.25) and a transparency window in the phonon density of states that acts to keep the intramolecular vibrations and M J levels apart. These findings advance the understanding of vibronic coupling in a molecular magnet with atomic clock transitions and suggest strategies for designing molecular spin qubits with improved coherence lifetimes.

We measured the infrared vibrational properties of two copper-containing coordination polymers, [Cu(pyz) 2 (2-HOpy) 2 ](PF 6 ) 2 and [Cu(pyz) 1.5 (4-HOpy) 2 ](ClO 4 ) 2 , under different external stimuli in order to explore the microscopic aspects of spin-lattice coupling. While the temperature and pressure control hydrogen bonding, an applied field drives these materials from the antiferromagnetic → fully saturated state. Analysis of the pyrazine (pyz)-related vibrational modes across the magnetic quantum-phase transition provides a superb local probe of magnetoelastic coupling because the pyz ligand functions as the primary exchange pathway and is present in both systems. Strikingly, the PF 6 - compound employs several pyz-related distortions in support of the magnetically driven transition, whereas the ClO 4 - system requires only a single out-of-plane pyz bending mode. Bringing these findings together with magnetoinfrared spectra from other copper complexes reveals spin-lattice coupling across the magnetic quantum-phase transition as a function of the structural and magnetic dimensionality. Coupling is maximized in [Cu(pyz) 1.5 (4-HOpy) 2 ](ClO 4 ) 2 because of its ladderlike character. Although spin-lattice interactions can also be explored under compression, differences in the local structure and dimensionality drive these materials to unique high-pressure phases. Symmetry analysis suggests that the high-pressure phase of the ClO 4 - compound may be ferroelectric.