Dr Olof Johansson and Professor Euan Brechin have been awarded an EPSRC grant titled ‘Femtosecond Coherences in Single-Molecule Magnets’ in collaboration with Tom Penfold at Newcastle University.
The team will explore new ways to manipulate paramagnetic coordination compounds by creating femtosecond coherent vibrational wavepackets along the Jahn-Teller (JT) axis to enable optical control of the magnetic anisotropy. The project builds on the team’s proof-of-principle results published earlier this year and involves synthesis of new molecules, advanced measurements and quantum chemical calculations. State-of-the-art spectroscopic methods, such as ultrafast electron diffraction and X-ray free-electron lasers, will be used in collaboration with external project partners in Japan, Switzerland and Germany.
The total value of the grant is £1.1M.
