Phys.org  June 11, 2024 Metal phthalocyanines are topical objects of ongoing research and particularly interesting due to their magnetic properties. However, while the current focus lies almost exclusively on spin-Zeeman-related effects, the high symmetry of the molecule and its circular shape suggests the exploitation of light-induced excitation of 2-fold degenerate vibrational states in order to generate, switch, and manipulate magnetic fields at the nanoscale. The underlying mechanism is a molecular pseudorotation that can be triggered by infrared pulses and gives rise to a quantized, small, but controllable magnetic dipole moment. Researchers in Austria investigated the optical stimulation of vibrationally induced […]