Subshell Stability in Superatomic Clusters and the Formation of Stable Magnetic Motifs

It is now well established that the quantum states in symmetric clusters are grouped into shells and that clusters with filled shells exhibit enhanced stability. While the stability with filled shells is established, the corresponding stability associated with half-filled shells and its role in properties is largely unexplored. In this work, we first examine the stability due to half-filled shells by considering a variety of clusters and show that such fillings indeed enhance the energetic stability. We then demonstrate that such a possibility enables the formation of magnetic species via stable subshells belonging to different quantum numbers. The formation of stable magnetic units with filled subshells opens the door to creating magnetic nanoassemblies with tunable coupling and magnetic anisotropy.