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Updated: May 24, 2026

Stable Aqueous Suspensions of Manganese Ferrite Clusters with Tunable Nanoscale Dimension and Composition
Published on: February 5, 2022
Spin coupling and orbital angular momentum quenching in free iron clusters
M Niemeyer1, K Hirsch, V Zamudio-Bayer
1Institut für Methoden und Instrumentierung der Forschung mit Synchrotronstrahlung, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie GmbH, Albert-Einstein-Straße 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany.
Abstract:
Magnetic spin and orbital moments of size-selected free iron cluster ions Fe{n}{+} (n=3-20) have been determined via x-ray magnetic circular dichroism spectroscopy. Iron atoms within the clusters exhibit ferromagnetic coupling except for Fe{13}{+}, where the central atom is coupled antiferromagnetically to the atoms in the surrounding shell. Even in very small clusters, the orbital magnetic moment is strongly quenched and reduced to 5%-25% of its atomic value while the spin magnetic moment remains at 60%-90%. This demonstrates that the formation of bonds quenches orbital angular momenta in homonuclear iron clusters already for coordination numbers much smaller than those of the bulk.
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