The ability of a single molecule to behave like a tiny magnet (single molecular magnets, SMMs) has seen a rapid growth in research over the last few years.  SMMs represent the smallest possible magnetic devices and are a controllable, bottom-up approach to nanoscale magnetism.  Potential applications of SMMs include quantum computing, high-density information storage and magnetic refrigeration.

Research by Euan Brechin and colleagues at the Universities of Edinburgh and Copenhagen has been focused on targeted structural distortion using oxime-based SMMs, specifically manganese complexes containing between three and eight metal centres.  The authors prepared non-planar ligands which were then used to prepare twisted metal complexes.  By deliberately twisting the molecule the magnetic interactions of the metal ions could be altered compared with their planar ligand analogues. This 'ground state spin-switching' is reviewed in their Dalton Transactions Perspective.

The authors hope that the concept of spin-switching will be applicable to other ligand systems and that families of high spin molecules can be generated through structural distortion.