Nanoscale X-ray investigation of magnetic metallofullerene peapods

Abstract

Endohedral lanthanide ions packed inside carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in a one-dimensional assembly have been studied with a combination of high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM), and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD). By correlating HRTEM and STXM images we show that structures down to 30 nm are resolved with chemical contrast and record X-ray absorption spectra from endohedral lanthanide ions embedded in individual nanoscale CNT bundles. XMCD measurements of an Er${}_3$N@C${}_{80}$ bulk sample and a macroscopic assembly of filled CNTs indicates that the magnetic properties of the endohedral Er3+ ions are unchanged when encapsulated in CNTs. This study demonstrates the feasibility of local magnetic X-ray characterization of low concentrations of lanthanide ions embedded in molecular nanostructures.

References in corpus (7)

• Quantum Computing in Molecular Magnets
• Will spin-relaxation times in molecular magnets permit quantum information processing?
• Supramolecular Spin Valves
• Towards a fullerene-based quantum computer
• Tunneling, Remanence, and Frustration in Dysprosium based Endohedral Single Molecule Magnets
• Surface aligned magnetic moments and hysteresis of an endohedral single-molecule magnet on a metal
• Landau-Zener tunneling of a single Tb3+ magnetic moment allowing the electronic read-out of a nuclear spin

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Ground states of linear rotor chains via the density matrix renormalization group