Macroscopic Measurement of Resonant Magnetization Tunneling in High-Spin Molecules

Abstract

We report the observation of steps at regular intervals of magnetic field in the hysteresis loop of a macroscopic sample of oriented M${\mathrm{n}}_{12}$${\mathrm{O}}_{12}$(C${\mathrm{H}}_{3}$COO${)}_{16}$(${\mathrm{H}}_{2}$O${)}_{4}$ crystals. The magnetic relaxation rate increases substantially when the field is tuned to a step. We propose that these effects are manifestations of thermally assisted, field-tuned resonant tunneling between quantum spin states, and attribute the observation of quantum-mechanical phenomena on a macroscopic scale to tunneling in a large (Avogadro's) number of magnetically identical molecules.