title: Iridates from the molecular side.
abstract: New exotic phenomena have recently been discovered in oxides of paramagnetic Ir(4+) ions, widely known as 'iridates'. Their remarkable properties originate from concerted effects of the crystal field, magnetic interactions and strong spin-orbit coupling, characteristic of 5d metal ions. Despite numerous experimental reports, the electronic structure of these materials is still challenging to elucidate, and not attainable in the isolated, but chemically inaccessible, [IrO6](8-) species (the simplest molecular analogue of the elementary {IrO6}(8-) fragment present in all iridates). Here, we introduce an alternative approach to circumvent this problem by substituting the oxide ions in [IrO6](8-) by isoelectronic fluorides to form the fluorido-iridate: [IrF6](2-). This molecular species has the same electronic ground state as the {IrO6}(8-) fragment, and thus emerges as an ideal model for iridates. These results may open perspectives for using fluorido-iridates as building-blocks for electronic and magnetic quantum materials synthesized by soft chemistry routes.
authors.affiliation: CNRS, ICMCB, UPR 9048, Pessac 33600, France.|Univ. Bordeaux, CRPP, UPR 8641, Pessac 33600, France.|CNRS, ICMCB, UPR 9048, Pessac 33600, France.|Univ. Bordeaux, ICMCB, UPR 9048, Pessac 33600, France.
authors.forename: Kasper S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Pedersen
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen DK-2100, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jesper
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bendix
authors.affiliation: CNRS, ICMCB, UPR 9048, Pessac 33600, France.|Univ. Bordeaux, ICMCB, UPR 9048, Pessac 33600, France.
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tressaud
authors.affiliation: CNRS, ICMCB, UPR 9048, Pessac 33600, France.|Univ. Bordeaux, ICMCB, UPR 9048, Pessac 33600, France.
authors.forename: Etienne
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Durand
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen DK-2100, Denmark.
authors.forename: Høgni
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Weihe
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Muon Spin Spectroscopy, Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen PSI CH-5232, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Zaher
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Salman
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen DK-2100, Denmark.
authors.forename: Thorbjørn J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Morsing
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QR, UK.
authors.forename: Daniel N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Woodruff
authors.affiliation: CNRS, Inst NEEL, Grenoble F-38000, France.
authors.forename: Yanhua
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lan
authors.affiliation: CNRS, Inst NEEL, Grenoble F-38000, France.
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wernsdorfer
authors.affiliation: CNRS, ICMCB, UPR 9048, Pessac 33600, France.|Univ. Bordeaux, ICMCB, UPR 9048, Pessac 33600, France.
authors.forename: Corine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mathonière
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen DK-2100, Denmark.
authors.forename: Stergios
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Piligkos
authors.affiliation: Institute of Applied Physics, Academy of Sciences of Moldova, Kishinev 2028, Moldova.
authors.forename: Sophia I
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Klokishner
authors.affiliation: Institute of Applied Physics, Academy of Sciences of Moldova, Kishinev 2028, Moldova.
authors.forename: Serghei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ostrovsky
authors.affiliation: ESRF - The European Synchrotron, CS 40220, 38043 Grenoble Cedex 9, France.
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ollefs
authors.affiliation: ESRF - The European Synchrotron, CS 40220, 38043 Grenoble Cedex 9, France.
authors.forename: Fabrice
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wilhelm
authors.affiliation: ESRF - The European Synchrotron, CS 40220, 38043 Grenoble Cedex 9, France.
authors.forename: Andrei
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rogalev
authors.affiliation: CNRS, ICMCB, UPR 9048, Pessac 33600, France.|Univ. Bordeaux, CRPP, UPR 8641, Pessac 33600, France.
authors.forename: Rodolphe
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Clérac