Dresden 2026 – scientific programme

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MA: Fachverband Magnetismus

MA 36: Molecular Magnetism and Magnetic Particles / Clusters I

MA 36.9: Talk

Wednesday, March 11, 2026, 17:15–17:30, POT/0151

Revealing molecular alignment in thin films of DyCu5 single-molecule magnets via XMCD — •David Anthofer, Ashish Moharana, Alexander Hagenow, Dominik Laible, Tristan Fischer, Eva Rentschler, Hans-Joachim Elmers, and Angela Wittmann — Johannes-Gutenberg Universität Mainz, Deutschland

Single-molecule magnets (SMMs) have recently gained significant interest due to their ability to retain magnetic information at the molecular level, offering potential applications in ultra-compact and high-density data storage devices. A crucial challenge hindering their application in technology is the integration with thin-film devices. To tackle this, we probe the magnetic properties of DyCu5 SMMs deposited by dip-coating on a gold surface, where layer thickness is controlled by rinsing or not rinsing the sample. Using X-ray magnetic circular dichroism combined with sum-rule analysis for 4f elements, we extract the spin and orbital moments of the central Dy3+ ion. Rotating the sample relative to the incident beam reveals magnetic anisotropy in the thin layer, indicating preferential molecular alignment at the interface. In thicker films, this anisotropy vanishes, suggesting that the molecules are ordered on top of the gold surface, but have a random orientation with increasing coverage. While engineering ordered molecular assemblies on surfaces is generally challenging, our results demonstrate that a readily accessible dip-coating protocol can induce ordered alignment in the low-coverage regime, providing a practical route toward incorporating SMMs into thin-film devices.

Keywords: XMCD; Sum-rule analysis; Single-molecule magnets; Molecule deposition