Near Isotropic D4d Spin Qubits as Nodes of a Gd(III)-Based Metal-Organic Framework.

Embedding coherent spin motifs in reproducible molecular building blocks is a promising pathway for the realization of quantum technologies. Three-dimensional (3D) MOFs are a versatile platform for the rational design of extended structures employing coordination chemistry. Here, we report the synthesis and characterization of a gadolinium(III)-based MOF, [Gd(bipyNO)4](TfO)3·xMeOH (bipyNO = bipyridine,N,N'-dioxide; TfO = triflate; and MeOH = methanol) (quMOF-1), which presents a unique coordination geometry that leads to a tiny magnetic anisotropy (in terms of D, an equivalent zero-field splitting would be achieved by D = 0.006 cm-1) even compared with regular Gd(III) complexes. Pulsed electron paramagnetic resonance experiments on its magnetically diluted samples confirm the preservation of quantum coherence of single Gd(III) qubit units in this 3D extended molecular architecture (T2 = 612 ns and T1 = 66 μs at 3.5 K), which allows for the detection of Rabi oscillations at 40 K.