Kyle's paper on ultrafast Jahn-Teller switching in Mn(III) terpyridine complexes has been accepted in Dalton Transactions!

We have a new PhD studentship available in the group! See here for details!

Erica’s paper on the group's femtosecond magneto-optical spectrometer has been published in Review of Scientific Instruments! In the paper, Erica describes how a transient absorption spectrometer and an electromagnet can be used to obtain time-resolved magnetic circular dichroism spectra with 0.4 mdeg sensitivity. Well done, Erica!

Hal's work on mitigating scatter in Prussian Blue films has been accepted in Thin Solid Films. The paper discusses the use of optically transparent adhesives in improving transmittance in thin film PBAs.

The group had our first in-person social of the year! Long overdue!

Our review on the ultrafast photoinduced dynamics in Prussian blue analogues (PBAs) has been published in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. We discuss the main processes observed in PBAs after photoexcitation on both femtosecond and nanosecond timescales and techniques used.

Kyle, Jake and Hal joined forces with Elliott of the Campbell group to partake in Chemunity's Battle of the Centuries Quiz, taking first place!

We have been awarded an EPSRC grant titled ‘Femtosecond Coherences in Single-Molecule Magnets’ in collaboration with Euan Brechin (Edinburgh) and Tom Penfold at Newcastle University. The team will explore new ways to manipulate paramagnetic coordination compounds by creating femtosecond coherent vibrational wavepackets along the Jahn-Teller (JT) axis to enable optical control of the magnetic anisotropy. The project builds on our proof-of-principle results published earlier this year (Liedy et al, Nature Chemistry, 12, 452 - 458 (2020)) and involves synthesis of new molecules, advanced measurements and quantum chemical calculations. State-of-the-art spectroscopic methods, such as ultrafast electron diffraction and X-ray free-electron lasers, will be used in collaboration with external project partners in Japan, Switzerland and Germany. We will soon advertise for a 3-year postdoc position with the group.

The School of Chemistry is gradually opening and we are back in the lab!

Florian passed his viva and did a great job! It was done over Zoom and we had to have the celebrations online as well. We wish Florian all the best for his new job with Seagate!

Florian's work on vibrational coherences in Mn-based single-molecule magnets was accepted in Nature Chemistry. This was a collaborative project with Julien Eng and Tom Penfold at Newcastle University and our colleague Euan Brechin at Edinburgh. We also published a behind-the-paper blog.

We have carried out a joint experimental and computational study on a trinuclear basic carboxylate iron complex together with Georg Lefkidis and Wolfgang Hübner at Kaiserslautern University. The work has now been published in a special edition dedicated to Jean-Yves Bigot and Eric Beaurepaire in the Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials.

Debi is leaving the group after securing a permanent position in industry. We thanked Debi for his contribution by going to one of his favourite restaurants in Edinburgh. Good luck, Debi!

The group organised a meeting on Photophysics of Molecular Magnets at the Royal Society of Edinburgh. We enjoyed plenary talks from Prof Eugenio Coronado and Prof Andrei Kirilyuk. There were speakers from synthetic chemistry, condensed matter physics, and both theory and experiments.

Our paper Vibrational Coherences in Manganese Single-molecule Magnets after Ultrafast Photoexcitation is now available on ChemRxiv. In the manuscript we report coherent vibrational wavepackets in Mn6 single-molecule magnets.

Hal gives his first-year presentation, well done!

The P5's at Law primary school (Alex's class) have been talking about light and changing materials... so naturally Olof and Alex gave a presentation and some demonstrations using lasers and things that glow... Great fun! Photo of Alex and his brother Daniel the night before while testing some of the props.

Olof visited Prof. Wolfgang Hübner and Dr. Georg Lefkidis at the University of Kaiserslautern.