TY - JOUR AU - Enachescu, Cristian AU - Stoleriu, Laurentiu AU - Stancu, Alexandru AU - Hauser, Andreas TI - Study of the relaxation in diluted spin crossover molecular magnets in the framework of the mechano-elastic model PY - 2011 JF - Journal of Applied Physics JA - J. Appl. Phys. SN - 0021-8979 VL - 109 IS - 7 SP - 711 L1 - http://scitation.aip.org/getpdf/servlet/GetPDFServlet?filetype=pdf&id=JAPIAU00010900000707B111000001&idtype=cvips&doi=10.1063/1.3556702&prog=normal L2 - http://jap.aip.org/resource/1/japiau/v109/i7/p07B111_s1?view=fulltext L3 - http://jap.aip.org/resource/1/japiau/v109/i7/p07B111_s1?view=fulltext M3 - 10.1063/1.3556702 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3556702 KW - magnetic impurities KW - metastable states KW - molecular magnetism KW - Monte Carlo methods KW - spin dynamics N2 - We model here the behavior of spin transition compounds, considering molecules arranged in a 2D hexagonal lattice and interacting via springs. The role of impurities in the clustering and nucleation phenomena is analyzed, as well as the manner in which the impurities affect the relaxation curves. The switching of the individual molecules is checked using a Monte Carlo procedure. When a molecule changes its state, it also modifies its volume, and the new equilibrium positions of all the molecules are calculated. As in previously reported experiments, it is found here that bigger impurities slow down the relaxation from the metastable high-spin state to the low-spin state, while smaller impurities act in an opposite way. It is shown that if the concentration of the impurities is higher than a certain threshold, then they act as a barrier, trammeling the fast evolution of domains developing from the edges. ID - 1265 ER -