Magnetism is a property of materials that respond at an atomic or subatomic level to an applied magnetic field.

Ferromagnetism is the strongest and most familiar type of magnetism. It is responsible for the behavior of permanent magnets, which produce their own persistent magnetic fields, as well as the materials that are attracted to them. However, all materials are influenced to a greater or lesser degree by the presence of a magnetic field. Some are attracted to a magnetic field (paramagnetism); others are repulsed by a magnetic field (diamagnetism); others have a much more complex relationship with an applied magnetic field. Substances that are negligibly affected by magnetic fields are known as non-magnetic substances. They include copper, aluminium, gases, and plastic. The magnetic state (or phase) of a material depends on temperature (and other variables such as pressure and applied magnetic field) so that a material may exhibit more than one form of magnetism depending on its temperature, etc.

[edit] Diamagnetism
Main article: Diamagnetism Diamagnetism appears in all materials, and is the tendency of a material to oppose an applied magnetic field, and therefore, to be repelled by a magnetic field. However, in a material with paramagnetic properties (that is, with a tendency to enhance an external magnetic field), the paramagnetic behavior dominates.[9] Thus, despite its universal occurrence, diamagnetic behavior is observed only in a purely diamagnetic material. In a diamagnetic material, there are no unpaired electrons, so the intrinsic electron magnetic moments cannot produce any bulk effect. In these cases, the magnetization arises from the electrons' orbital motions, which can be understood classically as follows: When a material is put in a magnetic field, the electrons circling the nucleus will experience, in addition to their Coulomb attraction to the nucleus, a Lorentz force from the magnetic field. Depending on which direction the electron is orbiting, this force may increase the centripetal force on the electrons, pulling them in towards the nucleus, or it may decrease the force, pulling them away from the nucleus. This effect systematically increases the orbital magnetic moments that were aligned opposite the field, and decreases the ones aligned parallel to the field (in accordance with Lenz's law). This results in a small bulk magnetic moment, with an opposite direction to the applied field. Note that this description is meant only as an heuristic; a proper understanding requires a quantum-mechanical description. Note that all materials undergo this orbital response. However, in paramagnetic and ferromagnetic substances, the diamagnetic effect is overwhelmed by the much stronger effects caused by the unpaired electrons.

[edit] Paramagnetism
Main article: Paramagnetism

In a paramagnetic material there are unpaired electrons, i.e. atomic or molecular orbitals with exactly one electron in them. While paired electrons are required by the Pauli exclusion principle to have their intrinsic ('spin') magnetic moments pointing in opposite directions, causing their magnetic fields to cancel out, an unpaired electron is free to align its magnetic moment in any direction. When an external magnetic field is applied, these magnetic moments will tend to align themselves in the same direction as the applied field, thus reinforcing it.

[edit] Ferromagnetism
Main article: Ferromagnetism A ferromagnet, like a paramagnetic substance, has unpaired electrons. However, in addition to the electrons' intrinsic magnetic moment's tendency to be parallel to an applied field, there is also in these materials a tendency for these magnetic moments to orient parallel to each other to maintain a lowered energy state. Thus, even when the applied field is removed, the electrons in the material maintain a parallel orientation. Every ferromagnetic substance has its own individual temperature, called the Curie temperature, or Curie point, above which it loses its ferromagnetic properties. This is because the thermal tendency to disorder overwhelms the energy-lowering due to ferromagnetic order. Some well-known ferromagnetic materials that exhibit easily detectable magnetic properties (to form magnets) are nickel, iron, cobalt, gadolinium and their alloys. [edit] Magnetic domains

Magnetic domains in ferromagnetic material. Main article: Magnetic domains The magnetic moment of atoms in a ferromagnetic material cause them to behave something like tiny permanent magnets. They stick together and align themselves into small regions of more or less uniform alignment called magnetic domains or Weiss domains. Magnetic domains can be observed with a magnetic force microscope to reveal magnetic domain boundaries that resemble white lines in the sketch.There are many scientific experiments that can physically show magnetic fields.

Effect of a magnet on the domains. When a domain contains too many molecules, it becomes unstable and divides into two domains aligned in opposite directions so that they stick together more stably as shown at the right. When exposed to a magnetic field, the domain boundaries move so that the domains aligned with the magnetic field grow and dominate the structure as shown at the left. When the magnetizing field is removed, the domains may not return to an unmagnetized state. This results in the ferromagnetic material's being magnetized, forming a permanent magnet. When magnetized strongly enough that the prevailing domain overruns all others to result in only one single domain, the material is magnetically saturated. When a magnetized ferromagnetic material is heated to the Curie point temperature, the molecules are agitated to the point that the magnetic domains lose the organization and the magnetic properties they cause cease. When the material is cooled, this domain alignment structure spontaneously returns, in a manner roughly analogous to how a liquid can freeze into a crystalline solid.

[edit] Antiferromagnetism

Antiferromagnetic ordering Main article: Antiferromagnetism In an antiferromagnet, unlike a ferromagnet, there is a tendency for the intrinsic magnetic moments of neighboring valence electrons to point in opposite directions. When all atoms are arranged in a substance so that each neighbor is 'anti-aligned', the substance is antiferromagnetic. Antiferromagnets have a zero net magnetic moment, meaning no field is produced by them. Antiferromagnets are less common compared to the other types of behaviors,

and are mostly observed at low temperatures. In varying temperatures, antiferromagnets can be seen to exhibit diamagnetic and ferrimagnetic properties. In some materials, neighboring electrons want to point in opposite directions, but there is no geometrical arrangement in which each pair of neighbors is anti-aligned. This is called a spin glass, and is an example of geometrical frustration.

[edit] Ferrimagnetism

Ferrimagnetic ordering Main article: Ferrimagnetism Like ferromagnetism, ferrimagnets retain their magnetization in the absence of a field. However, like antiferromagnets, neighboring pairs of electron spins like to point in opposite directions. These two properties are not contradictory, because in the optimal geometrical arrangement, there is more magnetic moment from the sublattice of electrons that point in one direction, than from the sublattice that points in the opposite direction. The first discovered magnetic substance, magnetite, was originally believed to be a ferromagnet; Louis Nel disproved this, however, with the discovery of ferrimagnetism.

[edit] Superparamagnetism
Main article: Superparamagnetism When a ferromagnet or ferrimagnet is sufficiently small, it acts like a single magnetic spin that is subject to Brownian motion. Its response to a magnetic field is qualitatively similar to the response of a paramagnet, but much larger.

[edit] Electromagnet
An electromagnet is a type of magnet whose magnetism is produced by the flow of electric current. The magnetic field disappears when the current ceases.

Electromagnets attracts paper clips when current is applied creating a magnetic field. The electromagnet loses them when current and magnetic field are removed.

Permeability
As previously mentioned, permeability ( ) is a material property that describes the ease with which a magnetic flux is established in a component. It is the ratio of the flux density (B) created within a material to the magnetizing field (H) and is represented by the following equation:

= /
It is clear that this equation describes the slope of the curve at any point on the hysteresis loop. The permeability value given in papers and reference materials is usually the maximum permeability or the maximum relative permeability. The maximum permeability is the point where the slope of the B/H curve for the unmagnetized material is the greatest. This point is often taken as the point where a straight line from the origin is tangent to the B/H curve. The relative permeability is arrived at by taking the ratio of the material's permeability to the permeability in free space (air).

(relative)

(material)

(air)

where:

(air)

= 1.256 x 10-6 H/m

The shape of the hysteresis loop tells a great deal about the material being magnetized. The hysteresis curves of two different materials are shown in the graph.

Relative to other materials, a material with a wider hysteresis loop has:

Lower Permeability Higher Retentivity Higher Coercivity Higher Reluctance Higher Residual Magnetism

Relative to other materials, a material with the narrower hysteresis loop has:

Higher Permeability Lower Retentivity Lower Coercivity Lower Reluctance Lower Residual Magnetism.

In magnetic particle testing, the level of residual magnetism is important. Residual magnetic fields are affected by the permeability, which can be related to the carbon content and alloying of the material. A component with high carbon content will have low permeability and will retain more magnetic flux than a material with low carbon content.

Magnetisation
The output from a magnetometer, a single value of magnetic moment for the sample, is a combination of the magnetic moments on the atoms within the sample, the type and level of magnetic ordering and the physical dimensions of the sample itself. The moment is also affected by external parameters such as temperature and applied magnetic field. The ``Intensity of Magnetisation3.2'', , is a measure of the magnetisation of a body. It is defined as the magnetic moment per unit volume or (3.2)

with units of Am (emucm

in cgs notation).[8]

A sample contains many atoms and their arrangement affects the magnetisation. In Figure 3.1(a) a magnetic moment is contained in unit volume. This has a magnetisation of Am. Figure 3.1(b) shows two such units, with the moments aligned parallel. The vector sum of moments is in this case, but as the both the moment and volume are doubled remains the

same. In Figure 3.1(c) the moments are aligned antiparallel. The vector sum of moments is now 0 and hence the magnetisation is 0Am.

Figure 3.1: Effect of moment alignment on magnetisation: (a) Single magnetic moment, two identical moments aligned parallel and (c) antiparallel to each other.

, (b)

Scenarios (b) and (c) are a simple representation of ferro- and antiferromagnetic ordering. Hence we would expect a large magnetisation in a ferromagnetic material such as pure iron and a small magnetisation in an antiferromagnet such as -Fe O .

Magnetic domains A magnetic domain describes a region within a magnetic material which has uniform magnetization. This means that the individual magnetic moments of the atoms are aligned with one another and they point in the same direction. When heated above a temperature called the Curie temperature, a piece of ferromagnetic material undergoes a phase transition, and the uniform magnetization within a domain spontaneously disappears: each atom has its own direction of magnetic moment, independent from its neighbouring atoms (typical of the paramagnetic state). Magnetic domain structure is responsible for the magnetic behavior of ferromagnetic materials like iron, nickel, cobalt and their alloys, ferrites etc. The regions separating magnetic domains are called domain walls, where the magnetisation rotates coherently from the direction in one domain to that in the next domain.

Development of domain theory

Main article: Domain theory of ferromagnetism Magnetic domain theory was developed by French physicist Pierre-Ernest Weiss[1] who in 1906 suggested their existence in ferromagnets.[2] He suggested that large number of atomic magnetic moments (typically 1012-1018) were aligned parallel. The direction of alignment varies from

domain to domain in a more or less random manner although certain crystallographic axis may be preferred by the magnetic moments, called easy axes. Weiss still had to explain the reason for the spontaneous alignment of atomic moments within a ferromagnetic material, and he came up with the so-called Weiss mean field : he assumed that a given magnetic moment in a material experienced a very high effective magnetic field due to the magnetization of its neighbours. In the original Weiss theory the mean field was proportional to the bulk magnetization M, so that

where is the mean field constant. However this is not applicable to ferromagnets due to the variation of magnetization from domain to domain. In this case, the interaction field is

Where Ms is the saturation magnetization at 0K. Later, the quantum theory made it possible to understand the microscopic origin of the Weiss field. The exchange interaction between localized spins favored a parallel (in ferromagnets) or an anti-parallel (in anti-ferromagnets) state of neighbouring magnetic moments.

[edit] Energy considerations

Rotation of orientation and increase in size of magnetic domains due to an externally applied field (compare Zeeman energy). The existence of magnetic domains is a result of energy minimisation. Landau and Lifshitz [1] proposed theoretical domain structures based on a minimum energy concept, which forms the basis for modern domain theory. The primary reason for the existence of domains within a crystal is that their formation reduces the magnetic free energy. In the simplest case for such a crystal, the energy, E, is the sum of several free energy terms: (3) where Eex is the exchange energy, Ek is the magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy, E is the magnetoelastic energy, ED is the magneto-static energy, and EH is the Zeeman energy, i.e. the energy of the magnetic material in the presence of an external applied field. A wall energy Ew

could also be added. However, since Ew comprises Eex and Ek, it is not necessary to include Ew as a separate term in the equation. [3]

Magneto-static energy: This is a self-energy, due to the interaction of the magnetic field created by the magnetization in some part of the sample on other parts of the same sample. Intrinsically, it has exactly the same nature as the "Zeeman energy" but the interaction of the material with itself is put in the magnetostatic energy whereas the interaction with the external magnetic field is put in the "Zeeman energy". This energy term is the only one responsible for the presence of magnetic domains in magnetic materials. Minimizing its value requires that the magnetization in the material makes closed loops, with the magnetization staying parallel to the sample edges. Magnetoelastic anisotropy energy: This energy is due to the effect of magnetostriction, a slight change in the dimensions of the crystal when magnetized. This causes elastic strains in the lattice, and the direction of magnetization that minimizes these strain energies will be favoured. Magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy: The crystal lattice is 'easy' to magnetize in some directions and 'hard' to magnetize in others. Magnetization in the easy directions lowers this energy. Zeeman energy: Energy resulting from the interaction between the magnetic material and an externally applied magnetic field.

[edit] Domain observation

There are many ways to observe magnetic domains. Each method has a different application because not all domains are the same. In condensed matter, domains can be circular, square, irregular, elongated, and striped, all of which have varied sizes and dimensions. Large domains, within the range of 25-100 micrometers can be easily seen by Kerr microscopy, which applies a physical phenomenon called the magneto-optic Kerr effect. Other domains, such as domains within the range of a few nanometers can be documented by the use of magnetic force microscopy.

1.1.3.2 Ferromagnetism. Weiss molecular field

Some materials present very strong magnetization, typically in the order of the saturation magnetization, also in absence of external field, i.e. they present spontaneous magnetization. This kind of materials are referred to as ferromagnetic materials (Fe, Co, Ni, Gd, alloys, etc.). Typical properties of some ferromagnetic materials can be found in Appendix A. The behavior of very small regions of ferromagnetic materials can be treated by following the same line of reasoning used for paramagnetism. With respect to the continuum model introduced in section 1.1.1, we are now dealing with phenomena occurring inside our elementary volume , which involve the interactions between single spins. Here we report the theory developed by Weiss which is very similar to the one used for paramagnetism. In fact, the main difference stays

in the postulation of an additional magnetic field

w whose non magnetic (Maxwellian) origin w

is not investigated. This field was called molecular field by Weiss [8]; by adding the field

w ( w is characteristic of the material) to the external field in Eq. (1.24), one ends up with the following equation: (1.28)

The latter equation can be linearized for high temperatures, which corresponds to small as seen before. Then, one can find the well-known Curie-Weiss law that once again expresses the dependance of the susceptibility on the temperature (1.29)

where

is the Curie temperature, characteristic of the material. Thus, for temperatures , one can use and the

the ferromagnetic materials behave like paramagnetic. For temperature Eq. (1.28) to derive the relationship between the saturation magnetization

temperature . The resulting relationship behaves like in Fig. 1.2. This behavior qualitatively matches with experimental observations [5].

Figure 1.2: Typical behavior of spontaneous magnetization as function of temperature. In addition, the phenomenological approach of molecular field was theoretically justified when Heisenberg introduced the exchange interaction on the basis of quantum theory (1931). Nevertheless, the Weiss theory gives information about the magnitude of magnetization, but nothing can be said about the direction. In this respect micromagnetics has the purpose to find

the direction of magnetization at every location within the magnetic body. In this respect, for constant temperature, the magnetization vector field can be written as (1.30)

where

is the magnetization unit-vector field.

Hysterisis curve:
Magnetic hysteresis

Hysteresis is well known in ferromagnetic materials. When an external magnetic field is applied to a ferromagnet, the atomic dipoles align themselves with the external field. Even when the external field is removed, part of the alignment will be retained: the material has become magnetized. For example, a piece of iron that is brought into a magnetic field retains some magnetization, even after the external magnetic field is removed. Once magnetized, the iron will stay magnetized indefinitely. To demagnetize the iron, it would be necessary to apply a magnetic field in the opposite direction. This is the effect that provides the element of memory in a hard disk drive.

Fig. 2. A family of B-H loops for grain-oriented electrical steel in sinusoidally varying fields with amplitudes from 0.3 T to 1.7 T. BR denotes remanence and HC is the coercivity.

The relationship between magnetic field strength (H) and magnetic flux density (B) - Fig. 2, is not linear in such materials. If the relationship between the two is plotted for increasing levels of field strength, it will follow a curve up to a point where further increases in magnetic field

strength will result in no further change in flux density. This condition is called magnetic saturation. If the magnetic field is now reduced linearly, the plotted relationship will follow a different curve back towards zero field strength at which point it will be offset from the original curve by an amount called the remanent flux density or remanence. If this relationship is plotted for all strengths of applied magnetic field the result is a sort of Sshaped loop. The width of the middle section of the loop describes the amount of hysteresis, related to the coercivity of the material. Its practical effects might be, for example, to cause a relay to be slow to release due to the remaining magnetic field continuing to attract the armature when the applied electric current to the operating coil is removed. This curve for a particular material influences the design of a magnetic circuit, This is also a very important effect in magnetic tape and other magnetic storage media like hard disks. In these materials it would seem obvious to have one polarity represent a bit, say north for 1 and south for 0. However, to change the storage from one to the other, the hysteresis effect requires the knowledge of what was already there, because the needed field will be different in each case. In order to avoid this problem, recording systems first overdrive the entire system into a known state using a process known as bias. Analog magnetic recording also uses this technique. Different materials require different biasing, which is why there is a selector switch for this on the front of most cassette recorders. In order to minimize this effect and the energy losses associated with it, ferromagnetic substances with low coercivity and low hysteresis loss are used, like permalloy. In many applications small hysteresis loops are driven around points in the B-H plane. Loops near the origin have a higher . The smaller loops the more they have a soft magnetic (lengthy) shape. As a special case, a damped AC field demagnetizes any material provided it is initially sufficiently intense. Magnetic field hysteresis loss causes heating.[2] This is an energy loss mechanism in power transformers and electric motors and other apparatus using ferromagnetic cores.

Soft and Hard magnetic materials Types of magnetic material

Most of magnetic materials of industrial interests are ferromagenetic materials. The ferromagnetic materials can be categorized into two; one is soft magnetic materials and the other is hard magnetic materials. As shown in the magnetization curve, ferromagnetic materials with the demagnetized state does not show magnetization although they have spontaneous magnetization. This is because the ferromagnetic materials are divided into many magnetic domains. Within the magnetic domains, the

direction of magnetic moment is aligened. However, the direction of magnetic moments vary at magnetic domain walls so that it can reduce the magnetostatic energy in the total volume. In the demagnetized state, total magnetization is cancelled because of the random orientation of the magnetizations in magnetic domains. When external magnetic field is applied, domain walls migrate and disappear when all magnetic moments are aligened to the direction of the magnetic field. When all magnetic domains are wiped away and magnetizations are all aligned to the direction of the magnetic field, magnetization is saturated. This magnetization is called saturation magnetization, Ms. When domain wall can easily migrate, the ferromagnetic material can be easily magnetized at low magnetic filed. This type of ferromagnetic materials are called soft magnetic material, and is suitable for applications of magnetic cores or recording heads. Since soft magnetic materials can be demagnetized at low magnetic field, coercivity Hc is low. As they can be easily magnetized, permeability is high. For ferromagnetic materials to be soft, their magnetocrystalline anisotropy and magnetostriction constant must be low. In addition, for easy migration of magnetic domains, they must have small number of defects such as crytal grains. When domain wall is difficult to migrate, magnetization of the ferromagnetic material occurs only when high magnetic field is applied. In other words, this type of ferromagnetic materials are difficult ot magnetize, but once magnetized, it is difficult to demagnetize. These materials are called hard magnetic materials, and are suitable for applications such as permanent magnets and magnetic recording media. Hard magnetic materials have high magnetocrystalline anisotropy. Since large magnetic field is required to demagnetize, their coercivity Hc is usually high, but coercivity is highly sensitive to the microstructurure.