Nitrogen-vacancy magnetometry of individual Fe-triazole spin crossover nanorods[Fe(Htrz)2(trz)](BF4) (Fe-triazole) spin crossover molecules show thermal,
electrical, and optical switching between high spin (HS) and low spin (LS)
states, making them promising candidates for molecular spintronics. The LS and
HS transitions originate from the electronic configurations of Fe(II), and are
considered to be diamagnetic and paramagnetic respectively. The Fe(II) LS state
has six paired electrons in the ground states with no interaction with the
magnetic field and a diamagnetic behavior is usually observed. While the bulk
magnetic properties of Fe-triazole compounds are widely studied by standard
magnetometry techniques their properties at the individual level are missing.
Here we use nitrogen vacancy (NV) based magnetometry to study the magnetic
properties of the Fe-triazole LS state of nanoparticle clusters and individual
nanorods of size varying from 20 to 1000 nm. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
and Raman spectroscopy are performed to determine the size of the
nanoparticles/nanorods and to confirm their respective spin state. The magnetic
field patterns produced by the nanoparticles/nanorods are imaged by NV magnetic
microscopy as a function of applied magnetic field (up to 350 mT) and
correlated with SEM and Raman. We found that in most of the nanorods the LS
state is slightly paramagnetic, explained by the surface oxidation and/or the
greater Fe(III) presence along the nanorod edges. NV measurements on the
Fe-triazole LS state nanoparticle clusters revealed both diamagnetic and
paramagnetic behavior. Our results highlight the potential of NV quantum
sensors to study the magnetic properties of spin crossover molecules and
molecular magnets.
arxiv.org