Strong magneto-chiral dichroism in enantiopure chiral ferromagnets
As materials science is moving towards the synthesis, the study and the processing of new materials exhibiting well-defined and complex functions, the synthesis of new multifunctional materials is one of the important challenges. One of these complex physical properties is magneto-chiral dichroism w...
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Published in | Nature materials Vol. 7; no. 9; pp. 729 - 734 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
London
Nature Publishing Group UK
01.09.2008
Nature Publishing Group |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | As materials science is moving towards the synthesis, the study and the processing of new materials exhibiting well-defined and complex functions, the synthesis of new multifunctional materials is one of the important challenges. One of these complex physical properties is magneto-chiral dichroism which arises, at second order, from the coexistence of spatial asymmetry and magnetization in a material. Herein we report the first measurement of strong magneto-chiral dichroism in an enantiopure chiral ferromagnet. The
ab initio
synthesis of the enantiopure chiral ferromagnet is based on an enantioselective self-assembly, where a resolved chiral quaternary ammonium cation imposes the absolute configurations of the metal centres within chromium–manganese two-dimensional oxalate layers. The ferromagnetic interaction between Cr(
III
) and Mn(
II
) ions leads to a Curie temperature of 7 K. The magneto-chiral dichroic effect is enhanced by a factor of 17 when entering into the ferromagnetic phase.
Magneto-chiral dichroism is an effect in which unpolarized light is absorbed differently for parallel and antiparallel propagation with respect to an applied magnetic field. Previous observations have only seen a rather weak demonstration of this effect. Following a challenging synthesis, strong magneto-dichroism has now been observed in enantiopure chiral ferromagnets. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-2 ObjectType-Feature-1 |
ISSN: | 1476-1122 1476-4660 |
DOI: | 10.1038/nmat2256 |