Quenching and Restoration of Orbital Angular Momentum through a Dynamic Bond in a Cobalt(II) Complex

Orbital angular momentum plays a vital role in various applications, especially magnetic and spintronic properties. Therefore, controlling orbital angular momentum is of paramount importance to both fundamental science and new technological applications. Many attempts have been made to modulate the ligand-field-induced quenching effects of orbital angular momentum to manipulate magnetic properties. However, to date, reported changes in the magnitude of orbital angular momentum are small in both molecular and solid-state magnetic materials. Moreover, no effective methods currently exist to modulate orbital angular momentum. Here we report a dynamic bond approach to realize a large change in orbital angular momentum. We have developed a Co(II) complex that exhibits coordination number switching between six and seven. This cooperative dynamic bond switching induces considerable modulation of the ligand field, thereby leading to substantial quenching and restoration of the orbital angular momentum. This switching mechanism is entirely different from those of spin-crossover and valence tautomeric compounds, which exhibit switching in spin multiplicity.