New experimental techniques for magnetic anisotropy in molecular materials

Magnetic anisotropy is a very important property in magnetochemistry. Its knowledge allows us to obtain a fundamental understanding of the electronic structure of both simple paramagnetic species and of magnetically coupled systems. The difficulties associated with its experimental determination have so far limited its investigation. Recently new experimental techniques using superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUID) and micro-SQUID arrays as well as cantilever torque magnetometry have drastically reduced the size of the crystals needed for the measurements, thus opening new perspectives. We will briefly review here these techniques, with the aim to advertise their use in the chemical community. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.