Magnetic properties

Magnetic pole strength:

Two magnets when placed closer to each other, either attract or repel each other. This ability of
the pole of the magnet to attract or repel another magnetic pole is called its Pole strength (m). The
magnetic pole strength (m) is said to be unity if the pole repels or attracts another pole with a force of one
newton when placed at a distance of one metre.

Magnetic dipole moment:

It is defined as the product of magnetic pole strength and magnetic length. It is indicated by µ m
µm = m . 2l
Magnetisation (M):

It is defined as the magnetic dipole moment per unit volume. It is indicated by (M).

M = µm / V
Susceptibility(χ):

It is defined as the Magnetisation per unit strength of the applied field. It is indicated by (χ).

χ=M/H
Magnetic flux (φ):

It is defined as the number of magnetic lines of force. It is indicated by (φ).

Magnetic flux density(B):

It is defined as the flux per unit area of cross section. It is indicated by (B). It is also called
Magnetic induction.

B=φ/A

Permeability(µ):

The ability of the material to allow the magnetic lines of force to pass through it is defined as
Permeability. It is defined as magnetic flux density per unit strength of the applied field.

µ=B/H

Permeability Vs Susceptibility:

Permeability of a material decides the number of magnetic lines of force that can penetrate the
specimen while susceptibility decides to what extent these lines of force can magnetise the specimen.
Obviously high permeability and high susceptibility always hint at easier magnetisation of the specimen
while poor permeability and poor susceptibility naturally hint at difficult magnetisation of the specimen.

Relative permeability (µr):

It is the ratio of permeability (µ) of the specimen to permeability of air or free space (µ0).

µr = µ / µ0

(µr) greater than one suggests that the number of lines penetrating the specimen is more than the number
of lines penetrating the surroundings (air of free space).

Origin of magnetic moment – Bohr magneton:

An electron revolving in an orbit about the nucleus of an atom is a tiny current loop. Hence a
magnetic field will be associated with this flow of current. Its magnetic moment can be calculated as
follows.
L v

µι
Let (m) be the mass of the electron and (- e) be the charge of the

Electron. Let the electron be moving with velocity (v) in a circular Bohr’s orbit

of radius (r).

The current (i) constituted by the motion of electron is given by

------------------- (1)

----------------------- (2)

-----------------------(3)

According to EM theory, the magnitude of Orbital magnetic dipole moment (µ ι) for a current (i) in a loop
of area (A) is given by
 µ ι = i A -------------------------- (4)

using (3) in (4), we get

µι

µι -------------------------- (5)

The orbital angular momentum (L) is given by

--------------------------(6)

Dividing (5) by (6), we get

--------------------------- (7)

Thus from the above equation, it is clear that the ratio of the magnitude of µl to the magnitude (L) for the
electron is a constant, independent of the details of the orbit. This constant is called ‘Gyromagnetic ratio’
of the electron.

The above equation can be expressed in vector notation as follows

-------------------------- (8)

The –ve sign indicates the is in the opposite direction to

From quantum mechanics the allowed values of (L) are given by

-------------- (9)

Where (l) is the orbital quantum number

Using equation (9) in (8), we get

-----------(10)

--------------(11)

--------------(12)

Where is called Bohr magneton

= 9.28 X 10-24A – m2

From the above equation it is clear that the electrons in an atom can take only certain specified values of
magnetic moment depending on the value of (l).
Electron spin:

In addition to the orbital motion, electron has got spin motion. Due to the spin motion electrons posses an
intrinsic spin angular momentum of where (s) is the spin quantum number, always equal to
(1/2). The electron spin magnetic moment is associated with the angular momentum. It is given by,

Here the coefficient gs is inserted for the reason that the ratio of magnetic moment to the angular
momentum differs from the classical value of . It is approximately equal to 2.0023

Classification of magnetic materials:

The magnetic moment in a material originates from the orbital and spin motions of electrons in an
atom. The orbital magnetic moment is always far lesser than the spin magnetic moment. In an atom
electrons form pairs in general such that they have opposite spins. Hence their spin magnetic moment is
zero. Therefore only those materials that have unpaired electrons have magnetic moment.

The following are the different types of magnetic materials.

I. Diamagnetic

II. Paramagnetic

III. Ferromagnetic

IV. Anti ferromagnetic

V. Ferrimagnetic

Diamagnetic materials:

1. The materials in which there is no permanent dipole moment are called Diamagnetic materials.
These materials get magnetised in a direction opposite to that of the applied magnetic field. Weak
repulsion is a characteristic of diamagnetism.

2. Relative permeability is lesser than one but positive. This means the lines of force become less
denser in the material than in air of vacuum. In normal material, Bin = Bout whereas in the
diamagnetic materials Bin < Bout i.e. the diamagnetic materials try to expel the magnetic lines of
force.

Fig: magnetic lines of force in normal material and

diamagnetic material

3. The magnetic susceptibility is small and negative.

4. Diamagnetism is universal i.e. all materials when exposed to external magnetic fields tend to
develop magnetic moments opposite in direction to the applied field. In para and ferro magnetic
materials, diamagnetism is negligibly small when compared with para and ferro effects.
5. In general atoms with zero magnetic moment i.e. with paired electrons exhibit diamagnetism.

6. At low temperature, superconductors are perfect diamagnetic. When we increase the temperature
beyond its critical temperature diamagnetism suddenly disappears from superconductor and then
it behaves as normal material.

7. Ex: Bi, Hydrogen and Antimony (Sb).

Paramagnetic materials:

1. The materials that possess permanent magnetic moment are either paramagnetic or ferromagnetic.
In the absence of magnetic field, the magnetic moments in paramagnetic substances are randomly
oriented resulting in zero net magnetisation.

2. When paramagnetic materials are placed in magnetic field, the magnetic moments tend to align
along the direction of the applied magnetic field, producing net magnetisation.

3. Weak attraction is the characteristic of paramagnetism.

4. Relative permeability is greater than one but small. This indicates that when a paramagnetic
material is placed in a uniform magnetic field, the flux density inside the material will be more as
shown in the figure.

Fig: magnetic lines of force inside the paramagnetic

material.

5. The magnetic susceptibility is small and positive. The magnetic susceptibility of para magnetic
materials is inversely proportional to absolute temperature i.e.

where (C) is called Curie’s constant. This is called Curie’s law.

6. Ex: Platinum, Aluminum, Manganese, Chromium etc

Ferromagnetic materials:

1. The materials that exhibit spontaneous magnetization are called ferromagnetic materials. The
alignment of molecular magnetic moments parallel to each other in the absence of magnetic field
is called Spontaneous magnetization.

2. Relative permeability is very high for these materials. Hence magnetic lines of force become very
dense in ferromagnetic.

3. The magnetic susceptibility is positive and very high and is of the order of (10 2 – 10 6) units.

4. Ferromagnetism exists only below a temperature called Curie temperature (TC).Above this
temperature ferromagnetic material behaves as paramagnetic material.

5. Ferromagnetic materials exhibit an interesting phenomenon called Hysteresis.

Fe, Ni and Co etc are examples of Ferromagnetic materials.

Hysteresis:

1. When the applied field is small, the induced magnetisation varies linearly with the field and is
also reversible. The region within which magnetisation is reversible is called Reversible region.

2. When the field is gradually increased, the magnetisation shows a non –linear variation with the
field and also becomes irreversible. If the field is further gradually increased the magnetisation
also increases gradually and ultimately attains a saturation value (MS). A further increase in the
field produces no change in the magnetisation.

3. However on the other hand when the field is gradually decreased the decrease in magnetisation
follows a different path. At zero field, the specimen continues to retain certain amount of
magnetisation called Residual or Remnant magnetisation (Mr)

4. A finite field (HC) called Coercive field is required to bring the magnetisation back to zero. A
further increase in the reverse field results in a complete reversal of (MS). A second reversal of
the field completes the hysteresis curve.

Fig: Hysteresis curve of Ferromagnetic materials.

Domain theory of Ferromagnetism:

1. The hysteresis behavior exhibited by Ferro magnets can be explained on the basis of Weiss’s
domain hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, Ferromagnetic materials are made up of large
number of ‘domains’ which are spontaneously magnetized. Each domain consists of about 109 –
1015 atoms. Within a given domain, all the dipoles (spins) are aligned in the same direction, so
that magnetisation is maximum.

2. A completely demagnetized ferromagnetic specimen is represented schematically by four equal

domains in the following figure. Obviously, it has no resultant magnetic moment.

3. A gradually increasing field is applied on the specimen in arbitrary direction. Those domains
which have magnetic moments along the direction of the applied field, called favourably oriented
domains, grow at the expense of the other domains which are called unfavourably oriented
domains as shown in the following figure.

4. As the field is increased further, the magnetisation increases to saturation due to a sudden rotation
of unfavourably oriented domains, so that the whole specimen may become one single domain
whose moment is directed parallel to the applied field as shown in the following figure.

5. This happens when a large field is applied in any arbitrary direction. At this stage the specimen is
said to be saturated and possesses maximum achievable magnetisation i.e. a further increase in
the field causes no change in the magnetisation.

Thus Weiss’s domain theory of Ferromagnetism could successfully explain an important property
of Ferromagnetic substances called Hysteresis.
 Bloch wall:

Bloch wall

As per Weiss’s domain theory of ferromagnetism, a ferromagnetic material consists of small areas
called Domains. In a given domain, the magnetic moments of all molecules are lined up parallel to
each other. These domains are separated from one another by boundaries. These boundaries are the
regions within which the moments change their spatial direction. This boundary or transition layer
between two domains is called a ‘Domain wall’ or ‘Bloch wall’. For a transition from a domain
with a spin up arrangements to one with a spin down arrangement, the transition layer would be as
shown in the above figure.

Soft magnetic material:

1. Figure shows the hysteresis loop of soft magnetic material. A magnetic material which can
be easily magnetized and demagnetized is called Soft magnetic material.

Fig: Hysteresis curve for Soft magnetic material.

2. Since the hysteresis loop area is small, they have small hysteresis loss.

3. These materials have large values for permeability and susceptibility.

4. The coercivity and retentivity are small.

5. They are used in Electro magnetic machinery and in transformer cores.

Ex: Fe – Si alloy and Fe – Ni alloy.

Hard magnetic material:

1. Figure shows the hysteresis loop of hard magnetic material. A magnetic material which
cannot be easily magnetized and demagnetized is called Hard magnetic material.

Fig: Hysteresis curve for Hard magnetic material.

2. Since the hysteresis loop area is large, they have large hysteresis loss.

3. These materials have small values for permeability and susceptibility

4. The coercivity and retentivity are large.

5. They are used to produce permanent magnets.

Ex: Alnico alloy and Cunico alloy etc.

Anti – ferromagnetism:

1. Anti – ferromagnetism arises when the spin moments of neighbouring atoms are oriented in an
anti parallel order i.e. anti ferromagnetic crystals are those in which the alternate atoms have their
spins parallel to each other.

2. The convenient picture is to assume that the crystal is composed of two interpenetrating sub
lattices (A) and (B) such that the atoms of sub lattice (A) have their spin moments oriented in one
direction and the atoms of sub lattice (B) have their spin moments oriented in the opposite
direction.

3. As a possible simple example of the structure of anti ferromagnetic material, we can consider a
bcc structure as shown in the figure. The corner points of the elementary cube are occupied by
(A) atoms with spin down and the body centred point is occupied by (B) atoms with spin up.

Fig: BCC structure representing anti ferromagnetic material

4. The magnetization of the anti ferromagnetic material will be zero in the absence of magnetic field.
The reason is – the magnetic moments exactly cancel when summed over the entire crystal. When
the field is applied, a small magnetization in the direction of field occurs.

5. The magnetization increases as the temperature is increased. Finally, a temperature is reached at

which the magnetization is maximum and above this temperature it decreases with further increase
in temperature. This critical temperature is called Neel temperature, denoted by (TN). The variation
of Susceptibility with temperature is as shown in the figure.
Fig: Susceptibility Vs temperature curve for Anti ferromagnetic
materials
6. Since the decrease of magnetization with temperature is a property of paramagnetic substances, the
specimen therefore becomes paramagnetic in this temperature i.e. for temperature above (TN)
Ferrites:

1. If the magnetic moments of the sub lattices in a crystal cell are equal in magnitude but opposite in
direction they cancel each other giving rise to Anti ferromagnetism in the crystal cell. There are
substances in which the magnetic moments of the two sub lattices are opposite in direction but
not exactly equal in magnitude. This uncompensated anti ferromagnetism is known as
Ferrimagnetism. The best example is Magnetite or Lode stone (Fe3O4).

2. Chemically they are expressed as Me++Fe2+++O4 where Me++ stands for a suitable divalent metal
ion such as Co+2, Mn+2, Ni+2, Fe+2, Zn+2, Cd+2, Mg+2 etc and Fe2+3 is a trivalent ferric ion.

3. X – ray crystallography reveals that ferrites usually have a structure that can be described as face
centred cubic structure of oxygen ions packed closely together with the much smaller divalent
and trivalent metal ions in the interstitial site. This structure is called Spinel structure named after
the mineral Spinel whose chemical formula is MgAl2O4 in which it was first discovered.

4. Ferrites have similar magnetic properties as ferromagnets. They show hysteresis, spontaneous
magnetization etc. their magnetization can be controlled by changing the relative percentage of
various constituent ions.

5. The following are the characteristics of ferrites:

a. There is a characteristic retentivity and coercivity of each ferrite.

b. They possess high permeability normally. The range of permeabilities extends from 15 –
20 units for Nickel to several thousand units for some Mn – Zn ferrites.

c. Another important property is their high resistivity. The resistivity ranges from 102 to
1010 ohm.cm

d. They have semiconducting nature. The resistance of ferrites decreases very rapidly with
the increase of temperature. The high resistivity of ferrites makes them suitable for using
in transformer cores.
 Superconductivity

In 1911, Kamerling Onnes found that the Resistivity

Resistivity ρ
of Mercury decreases proportionately with the
decrease in temperature and suddenly drops to a
very low value, which can be considered as zero
for all practical purposes. This phenomenon is known
as Superconductivity. This transition takes place at a
temperature of 4.172 k in the case of Mercury. This Tc = 4.172 k
temperature is called ‘Transition temperature’ or
Temperature, T
‘Critical temperature’. It is denoted by ‘Tc’.

Superconductivity is a reversible phenomenon i.e. the transition from normal to

superconducting state and vice – versa are both allowed. It is characterized by:
a) zero Resistivity and
b) Perfect diamagnetism.
Recall from the discussion of the Magnetic materials that a Diamagnetic material develops a
magnetic moment in a direction opposite to that of applied magnetic field and hence allows very
few magnetic lines of force to pass through it. Since superconductor is a perfect diamagnet, it
does not allow even a single magnetic line of force. This property of perfect diamagnetism
exhibited by Superconductors is also called Meissner – Oschenfeld effect popularly known as
Meissner effect. The following figure explain the Meissner effect or total flux expulsion
exhibited by Superconductors.
We have yet another interesting phenomenon called ‘Magnetic levitation’ which is a direct
consequence of Meissner effect which is illustrated in the following figure.
The caption of the figure gives all the explanation for the Magnetic levitation.
 Classification of Superconductors:

Superconductors can be classified into two categories. They are:

a) Type – I Superconductors
b) Type – II Superconductors.
The following figures illustrate the difference between them.

Type – I Superconductors:
As the temperature of the superconductor is gradually decreased the material transforms
from normal state to superconductor state at critical temperature (Tc). We know that in this state,
the material expels totally, the magnetic lines of force of the applied magnetic field. As the
strength of the applied magnetic field (H) is increased the superconductor gradually starts
allowing the magnetic lines of force and finally becomes normal material. This field denoted by
(Hc) at which superconductor becomes normal conductor is called critical magnetic field. It is
maximum at 0 K.
Now type – I superconductor exhibits superconductivity only when (H) and (T) are lesser than
(Hc) and (Tc) respectively. Usually critical fields are quite low for these superconductors.

Hc2
Normal
Normal Mixed
Hc state
state
Hc1 state
Superco
Superc
nducting onducti
state ng state
Hc1
Tc
Tc

Type – I Type – II
superconductor superconductor

Type – II Superconductors:
Type – I superconductors exist in two states only. But the second category of
superconductors called Type – II superconductors have an intermediate state as well called
‘Mixed state’. These materials have two critical magnetic fields (Hc1) and (Hc2). When the
applied magnetic field H < Hc1, the material exhibits superconductivity, just as type – I
superconductor (also T < Tc). Here it completely expels the magnetic lines of force i.e. it exhibits
perfect diamagnetism.
When Hc1 < H < Hc2, a type – II superconductor is in mixed state in which it allows some
magnetic lines of force but exhibits zero Resistivity. The stronger the applied magnetic field, the
more flux that penetrates the material, up to Hc2. When the field increases beyond Hc2 then the
transition from superconductor state to normal state takes place.
Applications of Superconductors:

The phenomenon of superconductivity finds many applications. A few of them are listed
below.
1) Electrical power transmission is done through cables. A considerable amount i.e. about
one – fifth of the quantity generated is lost on the way due to I2R losses. When
superconductors will be used as cables, these losses can effectively be avoided.

2) Huge magnetic fields are required in many areas of research and diagnostics in medicine.
The electro magnets are cumbersome. Being very big in size, they demand large electric
power to maintain magnetic field. In addition continuous cooling is to be provided.
Superconducting solenoid produces very strong magnetic fields. They are small in size
and do not need much power.

3) The most spectacular application would be Maglev trains which work based on magnetic
levitation exhibited by Superconductors. Maglev coaches float on a four inch air cushion
over strongly magnetized track. Superconducting coils produce the required magnetic
repulsion to levitate the coaches. Very high speeds of the order of 580 kmph can easily be
achieved.

4) There is a limit on the extent of crowding of components on a chip, due to I2R losses. Use
of superconductors makes it possible to crowd more circuits, in a given area, thus making
computers and electronic appliances still smaller.