Toroidal magnetic states in molecular wheels: Interplay between isotropic exchange interactions and local magnetic anisotropy

It is shown that magnetic quantum states characterized by a toroidal moment of the same order of magnitude as the routinely measured molecular magnetization can arise in molecular wheels from the interplay between isotropic exchange and on-site magnetic anisotropy. They represent the first example of noncollinear molecular Neel states whose coupling can be strongly quenched as function of the orientation of the local anisotropy axes.