Covalency magnetic axiality in Nd molecular magnets: Nd-photoluminescence, strong ligand-field, and unprecedented nephelauxetic effect in fullerenes NdMN@C (M = Sc, Lu, Y).

Nd-based nitride clusterfullerenes NdMN@C with rare-earth metals of different sizes (M = Sc, Y, Lu) were synthesized to elucidate the influence of the cluster composition, shape and internal strain on the structural and magnetic properties. Single crystal X-ray diffraction revealed a very short Nd-N bond length in NdScN@C. For Lu and Y analogs, the further shortening of the Nd-N bond and pyramidalization of the NdMN cluster are predicted by DFT calculations as a result of the increased cluster size and a strain caused by the limited size of the fullerene cage. The short distance between Nd and nitride ions leads to a very large ligand-field splitting of Nd of 1100-1200 cm, while the variation of the NdMN cluster composition and concomitant internal strain results in the noticeable modulation of the splitting, which could be directly assessed from the well-resolved fine structure in the Nd-based photoluminescence spectra of NdMN@C clusterfullerenes. Photoluminescence measurements also revealed an unprecedentedly strong nephelauxetic effect, pointing to a high degree of covalency. The latter appears detrimental to the magnetic axiality despite the strong ligand field. As a result, the ground magnetic state has considerable transversal components of the pseudospin g-tensor, and the slow magnetic relaxation of NdScN@C could be observed by AC magnetometry only in the presence of a magnetic field. A combination of the well-resolved magneto-optical states and slow relaxation of magnetization suggests that Nd clusterfullerenes can be useful building blocks for magneto-photonic quantum technologies.