Quantum signatures of a molecular nanomagnet in direct magnetocaloric measurements

Abstract

Geometric spin frustration in low-dimensional materials, such as the two-dimensional kagome or triangular antiferromagnetic nets, can significantly enhance the change of the magnetic entropy and adiabatic temperature following a change in the applied magnetic field, that is, the magnetocaloric effect. In principle, an equivalent outcome should also be observable in certain high-symmetry zero-dimensional, that is, molecular, structures with frustrated topologies. Here we report experimental realization of this in a heptametallic gadolinium molecule. Adiabatic demagnetization experiments reach ∼200 mK, the first sub-Kelvin cooling with any molecular nanomagnet, and reveal isentropes (the constant entropy paths followed in the temperature-field plane) with a rich structure. The latter is shown to be a direct manifestation of the trigonal antiferromagnetic net structure, allowing study of frustration-enhanced magnetocaloric effects in a finite system.