Brief encounter at the molecular level: what muons tell us about molecule-based magnets

Abstract Spin-polarized muons can be implanted in various molecular magnetic materials in order to measure static and dynamic magnetic field distributions at a local level. The positively-charged muon is an unstable, radioactive particle which has spin–1/2, a lifetime of 2.2 μ S , about one-ninth of the proton mass and a magnetic moment of approximately 1/200 μ B . Both pulsed and continuous beams of muons can be produced with almost 100% spin polarization and significant intensity at various accelerator facilities. The subsequent decay of the muon into a positron allows the extraction of the muon-spin autocorrelation function which can be related to the magnetic field distribution inside a…