Muons and magnets

Abstract:

We present the results of recent muSR experiments on a variety of novel organic and molecular magnetic systems. Muons are sensitive to local static fields and magnetic fluctuations, but can probe much more than just the onset of long-range magnetic order. We review our work on nitronyl nitroxide organic ferromagnets and anti ferromagnets. We describe a muon study of the spin-crossover phenomenon which has been studied in Fe(PM-PEA)(2)(NCS)(2), and which shows Gaussian and root-exponential muon relaxation in the high-spin and low-spin phases, respectively. Experiments on a disc-shaped molecular complex containing Fe-19 (with spin 31/2) reveal the effects of quantum tunneling of magnetization and allow an estimate of the quantum tunneling rate. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract:

We present the results of zero-held mu(+)-SR measurements on CoCO3 and NiCO3. Both compounds are rhombohedral antiferromagnets which exhibit a spontaneous weak magnetisation below 22.2 and 17.2 K, respectively. This arises due to an anisotropic superexchange (Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya) interaction. We have studied the temperature dependence of the internal field in the ordered state and the magnetic fluctuations in the paramagnetic state. We describe the possible muon-site obtained from dipolar-field calculations. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.