- Hiroki Oshio: Graduate School of Pure and Applied Sciences, Department of Chemistry, University of Tsukuba, Tennodai 1-1-1, Tsukuba 305-8571, Japan. oshio@chem.tsukuba.ac.jp
High-spin molecules with easy-axis magnetic anisotropy show slow magnetic relaxation of spin-flipping along the axis of magnetic anisotropy and are called single-molecule magnets (SMMs). SMMs behave as molecular-size permanent magnets at low temperature and magnetic relaxation occurs by quantum tunneling processes; such molecules are promising candidates for use in quantum devices. We first discuss intramolecular ferromagnetic interactions for preparing high-spin molecules. Second, we determine the magnetic anisotropy for single metal ions with d(n) configurations and discuss how molecular anisotropy arises from single-ion anisotropy of the assembled component metal ions.