Abstract

Lanthanoid Single Ion Magnets are coordination compounds with a wide number of attractive physical properties such as slow relaxation of the magnetization and quantum phenomena. Thanks to these features they constitute ideal building blocks of molecular spintronics and quantum computing. This has motivated the deposition of single ion magnets in two dimensions, either as uniform single layers or in some kind of patterns. Quinoline complexes and in particular Alq3 stand out as promising molecules since they have been used in several areas of interest related with molecular electronics. The use of lanthanide-quinoline compounds in molecular spintronics is new but has already provided interesting examples. The solution based chemistry of these compounds reveal that they are very sensitive to the synthesis conditions since small changes can lead to the formation of different compounds. For example, substituted quinoline (Rq) ligands can afford either tris [Ln(Rq)3L2] as well as tetrakis complexes ([Ln(Rq)2(RqH)2X] and C[Ln(Rq)4]n, where X is a halogen atom and C is a monovalent or divalent cation). In this work, we present some coordination complexes based in lanthanoid quinolinate compounds. They have that have been structurally and magnetically characterized and some of these compounds were found to display Single Ion Magnet behavior. Interestingly, it was found that several complexes can be sublimated in gentle conditions, ensuring that their molecular structures are preserved. This feature make these complexes suitable for their incorporation as spin collector layer of molecular spin valves.