Search for axions and dark photons using single molecule magnets
Molecular magnets, although analogous to familiar macroscopic magnets, offer a platform for next generation magnetic storage technologies with far higher data densities and prospective applications in quantum information science. When exposed to an external magnetic field, single molecule magnets enter a metastable configuration that is exceptionally sensitive to low energy excitations. Energy deposited by a dark matter particle can trigger the relaxation of a metastable molecule, releasing Zeeman energy that subsequently propagates through neighboring molecules. This magnetic avalanche encodes the energy deposited in the initial excitation. By combining concepts from chemistry, condensed matter physics, and particle physics, we show that dysprosium and manganese molecules can achieve more than an order of magnitude improvement in sensitivity to dark photon and QCD axion models, respectively, compared with existing detection methods.
Authors
- José Roberto Alves (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0520-5190)
- Farinaldo S. Queiroz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7141-5532)
- M. Lindner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3704-6016)
- Manoel S. Vasconcelos
Institutions
- Millennium Science Initiative (CL)
- Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (BR)
- Universidade do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte (BR)
- Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (DE)
- University of La Serena (CL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Scientific Reports
- Published
- 2026-09-07
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-66492-3
- Primary Topic
- Magnetism in coordination complexes
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- CERN
- Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics
- Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
- Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
- Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
- Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos
- ICTP South American Institute for Fundamental Research
- Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics
- Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo
- Nuclear Physics