Single crystal EPR study at 95 GHz of a large Fe based molecular nanomagnet: toward the structuring of magnetic nanoparticle properties

A W-band single-crystal EPR study has been performed on a molecular cluster comprising 19 iron(III) ions bridged by oxo-hydroxide ions, Fe-19, in order to investigate magnetic nanosystems with a behavior in between the one of Magnetic NanoParticles (MNP) and that of Single Molecule Magnets (SMM). The Fe-19 has a disk-like shape: a planar Fe-7 core with a brucite (Mg(OH)(2)) structure enclosed in a "shell" of 12 Fe(III) ions. EPR and magnetic measurements revealed an S = 35/2 ground state with an S = 33/2 excited state lying similar to 8 K above. The presence of other low-lying excited states was also envisaged. Rhombic Zero Field Splitting (ZFS) tensors were determined, the easy axes lying in the Fe19 plane for both the multiplets. At particular temperatures and orientations, a partially resolved fine structure could be observed which could not be distinguished in powder spectra, due to orientation disorder. The similarities of the EPR behavior of Fe-19 and MNP, together with the accuracy of single crystal analysis, helped to shed light on spectral features observed in MNP spectra, that is a sharp line at g = 2 and a low intensity transition at g = 4. Moreover, a theoretical analysis has been used to estimate the contribution to the total magnetic anisotropy of core and surface; this latter is crucial in determining the easy axis-type anisotropy, alike that of MNP surface.