Interplay of spin-dependent delocalization and magnetic anisotropy in the ground and excited states of [Gd2@C78]− and [Gd2@C80]−

The magnetic properties and electronic structure of the ground and excited states of two recently characterized endohedral metallo-fullerenes, [Gd2@C78]- (1) and [Gd2@C80]- (2), have been studied by theoretical methods. The systems can be considered as [Gd2]5+ dimers encapsulated in a fullerene cage with the fifteen unpaired electrons ferromagnetically coupled into an S = 15/2 high-spin configuration in the ground state. The microscopic mechanisms governing the Gd-Gd interactions leading to the ferromagnetic ground state are examined by a combination of density functional and ab initio calculations and the full energy spectrum of the ground and lowest excited states is constructed by means …