Lanthanides: Molecular Magnetic Materials

Rare earths are important magnetic carriers in the construction of molecular magnetic materials. In this chapter, we introduce the essential concepts and magnetic properties of molecular magnetic materials containing rare earths. For weak exchange-coupling interactions between rare earth ions and other spin carriers, only a few magnetic ordering systems are briefly described in terms of their magnetic properties and geometry structures. Considerable attention is focused on the low-dimensional magnetic compound with slow relaxation of magnetization behavior. Quantum tunneling and the relaxation mechanism are also briefly introduced in the section on magnetic relaxation. Keywords: single-molecule magnet; single-ion magnet; single-chain magnet; magnetic ordering; slow magnetic relaxation; quantum tunneling