Magnetic dipolar ordering and quantum phase transition in Fe8 molecular magnet

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that Fe8 molecular magnets serve as an experimental platform for studying quantum phase transitions in a transverse field, revealing critical behavior consistent with mean-field universality.

Contribution

It provides experimental realization and analysis of the Quantum Ising Phase Transition in Fe8 magnets, including phase diagram and critical exponents.

Findings

Fe8 magnets exhibit quantum phase transition behavior.

Phase diagram matches mean-field universality class.

Quantum annealing enables equilibrium exploration of QIPT.

Abstract

We show that a crystal of mesoscopic Fe8 single molecule magnets is an experimental realization of the Quantum Ising Phase Transition (QIPT) model in a transverse field, with dipolar interactions. Quantum annealing has enabled us to explore the QIPT at thermodynamical equilibrium. The phase diagram and critical exponents we obtain are compared to expectations for the mean-field QIPT Universality class.