Steps in the hysteresis loops of a high-spin molecule

We report the first observation of steps in the hysteresis loop of a high-spin molecular magnet We propose that the steps, which occur every 0.46 T, are due to thermally assisted resonant tunneling between different quantum spin states. Magnetic relaxation increases dramatically when the field is in the neighborhood of a step. A simple model accounts for the observations and predicts a value for the anisotropy barrier consistent with that inferred from the superparamagnetic blocking temperature. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.