Anomalies in the magnetic properties of copper impurity clusters in barium fluoride crystals

Copper impurity trimers with antiferromagnetic coupling between Cu²⁺ ions are synthesized in BaF₂ crystals. In some of the BaF₂: Cu crystals thus prepared, the concentration of copper stable trimers turns out to be higher than that of copper dimers and copper single centers. The BaF₂: Cu crystals are studied using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy at frequencies of 9.3, 23.0, and 37.0 GHz in the temperature range 4.2–77 K. It is found that the components of the effective tensor g for copper trimers depend strongly on the external magnetic field and temperature. A static model of the molecular structure of the copper trimer is proposed on the basis of the experimental data obtained.