A comparative high frequency EPR study of monomeric and dimeric Mn4 single-molecule magnets

We compare high frequency single crystal electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) data for monomeric and dimeric Mn-4 complexes where, in the case of the latter, intra-dimer exchange interactions are known to significantly alter the low temperature quantum behavior. The monomeric system exhibits typical single-molecule S = 9/2 EPR spectra; analysis of these data have enabled us to characterize the effective spin Hamiltonian parameters for this material. In the dimeric system, the ground state transition shows a splitting over a narrow range of fields and frequencies. The transfer of spectral weight between these split peaks is consistent with the exchange bias picture which has been developed to explain the absence of a zero-field tunneling resonance in low temperature hysteresis experiments. Indeed, these measurements provide the first independent confirmation for this exchange bias model. The absence of a significant intensity in excited state EPR transitions for the dimer contrasts the results for the monomer. This likely suggests important differences concerning the coherence of excited states of the dimer versus the monomer. No clear indications for intermolecular exchange interactions were observed in the EPR for the monomer. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.