Single-Molecule Nanomagnets: Tunneling, Interference and Quantum Computing

Single-molecule magnets are ideal systems in which to study quantum phenomena on the mesoscopic scale. Composed of a handful of magnetic ions, they straddle the fence between the classical and quantum worlds, showing hysteresis effects characteristic of classical bulk magnets as well as quantum tunneling of magnetization in which the magnetization vector reverses direction by passing through a classically forbidden region. In this talk, I will review some of the more interesting phenomena found in these systems by several research groups. These include resonant tunneling between degenerate magnetization states, interference between tunneling paths that can lead to a suppression of tunneling, and exchange biasing produced by coupled molecular magnets. I will conclude by exploring the prospects for these systems to become viable qubits, the processing elements of quantum computers. abstract.friedman.html