Description:

Title and Abstract:

"Magnetic molecules in quantum nanoscience: the challenge of singlespinmanipulation"

Implementation of advanced Quantum Technologies might benefit from the remarkable quantum properties shown by molecular spin systems and the unique tuneability of their features at the synthetic level. To fully harness this potential, single-molecule spin manipulation should be achieved. However, only electric fields can be spatially confined at the level of a single molecule, for instance under the tip of a scanning tunnel microscopy. In our research, we have thus focused on molecules that can be sublimated on surfaces and addressed by STM and investigated in detail surface-molecule interactions and their effects on the spin properties. Spin manipulation with electric fields requires also efficient spin electric coupling, but this phenomenon is not yet fully understood in molecular materials. Implementation of an electric field in EPR spectroscopy is a promising tool to investigate this effect.

Speaker Biography:

Roberta Sessoli developed her career at the University of Florence where she is a full professor since 2012. She played a key part in the original discovery of single-molecule magnets (SMM), a broad class of molecular materials in which non-interacting molecules exhibit magnetic memory (hysteresis and coercive field) and quantum effects. This seminal discovery opened up an entirely new field in nanoscience. Her current interests include the interplay between magnetism and chirality, magnetic molecules on surfaces to form hybrid interfaces for spintronics, and molecules with highly coherent spin dynamics for quantum information. She is a member of the Accademia dei Lincei, of the Academiae Europaeae, of the European Academy of Science, and of the German Science Academy Leopoldina. She is an Associate Editor of the Inorganic Chemistry journal of the American Chemical Society.