| OXFORD MASTER SERIES IN CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS Magnetism in Condensed MatterOXFORD MASTER SERIES IN CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICSOXFORD MASTER SERIES IN CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS ‘The Oxford Master Series in Condensed Matter Physics is designed for inal year undergraduate and beginning graduate students in physics and related disciplines. It has been driven by a perceived gap inthe literature today. ‘While basic undergraduate condensed matter physics texts often show litle or no connection with the huge explosion ‘of research in condensed matter physics over the last two decades, more advanced and specialized texts tend to be rather daunting for students. In this series, all topics and their consequences are treated ata simple level, while pointers to recent developments are provided at various stages. The emphasis in on clear physical principles of symmetry, quantum mechanics, and electromagnetism which underlie the whole field. At the same time, the subjects are related to real measurements and tothe experimental techniques and devices currently used by physicists in academe and industry. Books in this series are written as course books, and include ample tutorial material, examples, illustrations, revision points, and problem sets. They can likewise be used as preparation for students starting a doctorate in condensed ‘matter physics and related fields (.g. in the fields of semiconductor devices, opto-electronic devices, or magnetic ‘materials) or for recent graduates starting research in one of these fields in industry. M.T. Dove: Structure and dynamics J. Singleton: Band theory and electronic properties of solids, A.M. Fox: Optical properties of solids S.J. Blundell: Magnetism in condensed matter I.F. Annett: Superconductivity R. AL. Jones: Soft condensed matterMagnetism in Condensed Matter ‘STEPHEN BLUNDELL Department of Physics University of Oxford OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESSOXFORD Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Pres is @ department of the University of Oxford, I furthers the University's objective of excellence in esearch, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogoté Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Paris So Paulo Shanghai Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw with associated companies in Berlin Toedan Oxford isa registered trade mark of Oxford University Press inthe UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Stephen Blundell, 2001 “The moral rights ofthe author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2001 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored ina retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction ‘outside the scope ofthe above should be sent to the Rights Department, (Oxford University Press, st the adress above ‘You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer ‘A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data Blundell, Stephen. ‘Magnetism in condensed matter / Stephen Blundell. (Oxford master series in condensed matter physics) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Condensed matter-Magnetie properties. I. Tile. I. Series. (QC173.458.M33 BSS 2001 530.4'12-4e21 2001085164 ISBN 0 19 850592 2 (Hk) ISBN 0 19 850591 4 (Pbk) 10987654321 ‘Typeset using the author's IATEX files by HK Typeseting Lid, London Printed in Great Britain ‘on acid-free paper by BookcraftPreface *... i Him all things hold together.” (Colossians |") Magnetism is a subject which has been studied for nearly three thousand years. Lodestone, an iron ore, first attracted the attention of Greek scholars and philosophers, and the navigational magnetic compass was the first technological product resulting from this study. Although the compass was certainly known in Westem Europe by the twelfth century AD, it was not until around 1600 that anything resembling a modem account of the working of the compass was proposed. Progress in the last two centuries has been more rapid and two major results have emerged which connect magnetism with other physical phenomena, First, magnetism and electricity are inextricably linked and are the two components that make up light, which is called an electromagnetic wave, Second, this link originates from the theory of relativity, and therefore magnetism can be described as a purely relai effect, due to the relative motion of an observer and charges moving in a wire, o in the atoms of iron. However it is the magnetism in condensed matter systems including ferromagnets, spin glasses and low-dimensional systems, which is still of great interest today. Macroscopic systems exhibit ‘magnetic properties which are fundamentally different from those of atoms ‘and molecules, despite the fact that they are composed of the same basic constituents, This arises because magnetism is a collective phenomenon, involving the mutual cooperation of enormous numbers of particles, and is in this sense similar to superconductvity, superfluidty and even to the phenomenon of the solid state itself. The interest in answering fundamental questions runs in parallel with the technological drive to find new materials for use as permanent magnets, sensors, or in recording applications. This book has grown out of a course of lectures given to third and fourth ‘year undergraduates at Oxford University who have chosen a condensed matter physics option. There was an obvious need for a text which treated the fun- damentals but also provided background material and additional topics which could not be covered in the lectures. The aim was to produce a book which pre- sented the subject as a coherent whole, provided useful and interesting source ‘material, and might be fun to read. The book also forms part of the Oxford Master Series in Condensed Matter Physics; the other volumes of the series cover electronic properties, optical properties, superconductivity, structure and soft condensed matter. ‘The prerequisites for this book are a knowledge of basic quantum mechanics and electromagnetism and a familiarity with some results from atomic physics ‘These are summarized in appendices for easy access for the reader and to present a standardized notation Structure ofthe book: t 1 t 1 Eevi Preface ‘The interesting magnetic effects found in condensed matter systems have two crucial ingredients: first, that atoms should possess magnetic moments and second, that these moments should somehow interact. These two subjects are discussed in Chapters 2 and 4 respectively. Chapter 2 answers the question ‘why do atoms have magnetic moments?” and shows how they behave and can be studied if they do not interact. Chapter 3 describes how these mag- netic moments can be affected by their local environment inside a crystal and the techniques which can be used to study this. Chapter 4 then answers the question ‘how do the magnetic moments on different atoms interact with each ‘other? With these ingredients in place, magnetic order can occur, and this is the subject of Chapters Sand 6. Chapter 5 contains a description of the different types of magnetic order which can be found in the solid state. Chapter 6 considers order again, but starts from basic ideas of broken symmetry and describes phase transitions, excitations and domains. A strong emphasis isthe link between magnetic order and other types of broken-symmeiry ground states Some possible coune stress like superconductvity. Chapter 7is devoted tothe magnetic properties of met- (0) Shor course (esuming Chapter | is als, in which magnetism can often be associated with delocalized conduction now electrons. Chapter 8 describes some of the subtle and complex effects which CChapter2(omit26-28) can occur when competing magnetic interactions are present and/or the system Chapeer 3 (omit 32) has a reduced dimensionality. These topics are the subject of intense research + Chop 4 (omit 425,426) activity and there are many outstanding questions which remain to be resolved. tere Sem 3 57) Trroughout he tet 1 eocss popes and applications o dems the Shope Gfont42) pions ofl tes ideas for rea material nluding fetes, permanent epee ean arash (2) Longer course: : ones sistance effects which have become of enormous technological importance in sities a recent years. This is Or physici erefore the emphasis is on TM as 57 ag PEEL Yeats. This is a book for physicists and therefore the emphasis iso serial say the clear physical principles of quantum mechanics, symmetry, and electro- Chapter ‘magnetism which underlie the whole field. However this is not just a ‘theory + Chaput 7 (15-79 a8 beck- book’ but allempts to relate the subject to real measurements and experimental 2 emma apes techniques which are currently used by experimental physicists and to bridge the gulf between the principles of elementary undergraduate physics and the topies of current research interest Chapters 1-7 conclude with some further reading and problems. The prob- lems are of varying degrees of difficulty but serve to amplify issues addressed in the text. Chapter 8 contains no problems (the subjects described in this chapter are all topics of current research) but has extensive further reading, Iris a great pleasure to thank those who have helped during the course of writing this book. I am grateful for the support of Sénke Adlung and his team at Oxford University Press, and also tothe other authors of this Masters series. Mansfield College, Oxford and the Oxford University Department of Physics have provided a stimulating environment in which t0 work. I wish to record my gratitude to my students who have sometimes made me think very hard about things T thought I understood. In preparing various aspects Of this book, I have benefited greatly from discussions with Hideo Aoki, ‘Arzhang Ardavan, Deepto Chakrabarty, Amalia Coldea, Radu Coldea, Roger Cowley, Steve Cox, Gillian Gehring, Matthias Gester, John Gregg, Marin Greven, Mohamedally Kurmoo, Steve Lee, Wilson Poon, Francis Pratt, John Singleton and Candadi Sukumat. lowe a special debt of thanks tothe ftiends and colleagues who have read the manuscript in various drafts and whoseexacting criticisms and insightful questions have immensely improved the final result: Katherine Blundell, Richard Blundell, Andrew Boothroyd, Geoffrey Brooker, Bill Hayes, Brendon Lovett, Lesley Parry-Jones and Peter Riedi. Any errors in this book which I discover after going to press will be posted on the ‘web-site for this book which may be found at: heetp: //users.ox.ac.uk/~sjb/magnetism/ Most of all, I want to thank Katherine, dear wife and soulmate, who more than anyone has provided inspiration, counsel, friendship and love. This work is dedicated to her. Oxford SJB. May 2001 Preface viiThis page intentionally left blankContents 1 Introduction 1.1 Magnetic moments, 1.1.1 Magnetic moments and angular momentum 112 Precession 1.1.3 The Bolr magneton 1.14 Magnetization and field 1.2. Classical mechanics and magnetic moments 1.2.1 Canonical momentum 1.22 The Bohr-van Leeuwen theorem 1.3 Quantum mechanies of spin 1.3.1 Orbital and spin angular momentum 1.32 Pauli spin matrices and spinors 1.33 _ Raising and lowering operators 134 The coupling of two spins 2 Isolated magnetic moments 2.1 Anatom ina magnetic field 22. Magnetic susceptibility 23. Diamagnetism 2.4 Paramagnetism 24.1 Semiclassical treatment of paramagnetism 2.42 Paramagnetism for J = 4 243 The Brillouin function 2.44 Van Vleck paramagnetism 2.5 The ground state of an ion and Hund’s rules 25.1 Fine structure 2.5.2 Hund’s rules 2:53. L-S andj) coupling 2.6 Adiabatic demagnetization 2.7. Noclear spins 2.8. Hyperfine structure 3. Environments 3.1 Crystal fields BALL Origin of erystal fields 3.1.2 Orbital quenching 3.13 The Jahn—Teller effect 3.2 Magnetic resonance techniques 3.2.1 Nuclear magnetic resonance