Provides an extensive overview of the last three decades of research on the structures and magnetic behaviors of organic and organometallic substances-building a solid foundation for future research into applications of molecular materials based on organic paramagnetic and polymeric systems. Provides the essential body of knowledge for an organically oriented materials science of electronic materials.

Provides an extensive overview of the last three decades of research on the structures and magnetic behaviors of organic and organometallic substances-building a solid foundation for future research into applications of molecular materials based on organic paramagnetic and polymeric systems. Provides the essential body of knowledge for an organically oriented materials science of electronic materials.

Provides an extensive overview of the last three decades of research on the structures and magnetic behaviors of organic and organometallic substances-building a solid foundation for future research into applications of molecular materials based on organic paramagnetic and polymeric systems. Provides the essential body of knowledge for an organically oriented materials science of electronic materials.

Organic materials with extraordinary magnetic properties promise a wide range of light, flexible, and inexpensive alternatives to familiar metal-based magnets. Individual organic molecules with high magnetic moments will be the foundation for design and fabrication of these materials.This book provides a systematic understanding of the structure and properties of organic magnetic molecules. After a summary of the phenomenon of magnetism at the molecular level, it presents a survey of the challenges to theoretical description and evaluation of the magnetic character of open-shell molecules, and an overview of recently developed methods and their successes and shortfalls. Several fields of application, including very strong organic molecular magnets and photo-magnetic switches, are surveyed. Finally, discussions on metal-based materials and simultaneously semiconducting and ferromagnetic extended systems and solids point the way toward future advances.The reader will find a comprehensive discourse on current understanding of magnetic molecules, a thorough survey of computational methods of characterizing known and imagined molecules, simple rules for design of larger magnetic systems, and a guide to opportunities for progress toward organic magnets.

One of the major challenges of science in the last few years of the second millennium is learning how to design materials which can fulfill specific tasks. Ambitious as it may be, the possibilities of success are not ne~li~ble provided that all the different expertises merge to overcome the limits of eXIsting disciplines and forming new paradigms science. The NATO Advanced Research Workshop on "Magnetic Molecular Materials" was organized with the above considerations in mind in order to determine which are the most appropriate synthetic strategies, experimental techniques of investigation, and theoretical models which are needed in order to develop new classes of magnetic materials which are based on molecules rather than on metallic or ionic lattices. Why molecules? The answer may be obvious: molecular chemistry in principle fine can tune the structures and the properties of complex aggregates, and nature already provides a large number of molecular aggregates which can perform the most disparate functions. The contributions collected in this book provide a rather complete view of the current research accomplishments of magnetic molecular materials. There are several different synthetic approaches which are followed ranging from purely organic to inorganic materials. Some encouraging successes have already been achieved, even if the critical temperatures below which magnetic order is observed still are in the range requiring liquid helium.

In the last two decades low-dimensional (low-d) physics has matured into a major branch of science. Quite generally we may define a system with restricted dimensionality d as an object that is infinite only in one or two spatial directions (d = 1 and 2). Such a definition comprises isolated single chains or layers, but also fibres and thin layers (films) of varying but finite thickness. Clearly, a multitude of physical phenomena, notably in solid state physics, fall into these categories. As examples, we may mention: • Magnetic chains or layers (thin-film technology). • Metallic films (homogeneous or heterogeneous, crystalline, amorphous or microcristalline, etc.). • I-d or 2-d conductors and superconductors. • Intercalated systems. • 2-d electron gases (electrons on helium, semiconductor interfaces). • Surface layer problems (2-d melting of monolayers of noble gases on a substrate, surface problems in general). • Superfluid films of ~He or 'He. • Polymer physics. • Organic and inorganic chain conductors, superionic conductors. • I-d or 2-d molecular crystals and liquid crystals. • I-d or 2-d ferro- and antiferro electrics.

This is the perfect complement to "Chemical Bonding - Across the Periodic Table" by the same editors, who are two of the top scientists working on this topic, each with extensive experience and important connections within the community. The resulting book is a unique overview of the different approaches used for describing a chemical bond, including molecular-orbital based, valence-bond based, ELF, AIM and density-functional based methods. It takes into account the many developments that have taken place in the field over the past few decades due to the rapid advances in quantum chemical models and faster computers.