Ligand Radicals as Modular Organic Electron Spin Qubits.

The intrinsic redox activity of the dithiolene ligand is presented here as the novel spin host in the design of a prototype molecular electron spin qubit, where the traditional roles of the metal and ligand components in coordination complexes are inverted. A series of paramagnetic bis(dithiolene) complexes with group 10 metals-nickel, palladium, platinum-provides a backdrop to investigate the spin dynamics of the organic ligand radical using pulsed EPR spectroscopy. The temperature dependence of the phase memory time (TM ) is shown to be dependent on the identity of the diamagnetic metal ion, with the short times recorded for platinum a consequence of a diminishing spin-lattice (T1 ) relaxation time driven by spin-orbit coupling. The utility of the radical ligand spin center is confirmed when it delivers one of the longest phase memory times ever recorded for a molecular two-qubit prototype.