Photon-Induced Magnetization Reversal in Single-Molecule Magnets

We use millimeter wave radiation to manipulate the populations of the energy levels of a single crystal molecular magnet Fe8. When a continuous wave radiation is in resonance with the transitions from the ground state to the first excited state, the equilibrium magnetization exhibits a dip. The position of this dip varies linearly with the radiation frequency. Our results provide a lower bound of 0.17 ns for transverse relaxation time and suggest the possibility that single-molecule magnets might be utilized for quantum computation.