Magnetic transitions and spin-glass reentrance in two-dimensional [MnII(TCNE)(NCMe)2]X (X = PF6,AsF6,SbF6) molecular magnets.

The structural, spectroscopic and magnetic properties of the two-dimensional (2D) molecule-based magnets of [Mn(II)(TCNE)(NCMe)2]X (X = PF6, AsF6, SbF6; TCNE = tetracyanoethylene, NCMe = acetonitrile) composition are reported. It is shown that the alteration of the interlayer distance by increasing the anion size has little effect on the critical magnetic ordering temperature, Tc, suggesting that it depends predominantly on the intra-plane magnetic exchange. The observed field-induced irreversibility in static magnetization, a slow decay of isothermal remanence below Tc, and the dynamic susceptibility data are in accord with a re-entrant spin-glass nature of the ground state of all materials. In contrast to the isostructural Fe-based magnets, in which strong magnetocrystalline anisotropy facilitates the finite temperature magnetic ordering with the magnetization easy axis perpendicular to the μ4-TCNE(•-) plane, in the studied Mn-based magnets the easy axis is canted away from the normal direction, due to a small magnetocrystalline anisotropy. The two magnetic transitions observed on cooling are assigned to the ferrimagnetic long-range ordering of the normal magnetization component followed by the re-entrant spin-glass type transition resulting from a random freezing of the in-plane magnetization component.