Molecular quantum magnetism involving an isolated spin state is of particular interest due to the characteristic quantum phenomena underlying spin qubits or molecular spintronics for quantum information devices, as demonstrated in magnetic metal-organic molecular systems, the so-called molecular magnets. Here we report the molecular quantum magnetism realized in an inorganic solid Ba3Yb2Zn5O11 with spin-orbit coupled pseudospin-½ Yb(3+) ions. The magnetization represents the magnetic quantum values of an isolated Yb4 tetrahedron with a total (pseudo)spin 0, 1 and 2. Inelastic neutron scattering results reveal that a large Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction originating from strong spin-orbit coupling of Yb 4f is a key ingredient to explain magnetic excitations of the molecular magnet states. The Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction allows a non-adiabatic quantum transition between avoided crossing energy levels, and also results in unexpected magnetic behaviours in conventional molecular magnets.

中文翻译：

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自旋轨道耦合分子量子磁性在无机固体中实现。

正如在磁性金属-有机分子系统（所谓的分子磁体）中所证明的，由于量子信息设备的自旋量子位或分子自旋电子学之下的特征量子现象，涉及孤立的自旋态的分子量子磁性特别受关注。在这里，我们报告在具有自旋轨道耦合的伪自旋-1/2 Yb（3+）离子的无机固体Ba3Yb2Zn5O11中实现的分子量子磁性。磁化强度代表一个孤立的Yb4四面体的磁量子值，其总（伪）自旋为0、1和2。非弹性中子散射结果表明，源自Yb 4f强自旋轨道耦合的大Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya相互作用是关键解释分子磁态的磁激发的成分。