PHT201 (Electrical Engineering Materials and IC Fabrication), Semester III Branches: EC, EN, ED

Lecture Notes-17
Diamagnetism and paramagnetism
[Supplementary Material (see Sec 4.7, 4.9 in Dekker)]

Department of Physics
Ramdeobaba College of Engineering and Management, Nagpur, India 440013
Third Week September 2012

In this l;ecture we look at diamagnetic materials and phenomenon of paramagnetism.

§ 1. Diamagnetism
Every material possesses diamagnetism. However it is dominant only when atoms of the material have no permanent magnetic
dipoles. Theonly magnetic dipole moment is the induced dipole moment given by
e2 R2 e2 R2
minduced = - B=- Μo Μr H (0.1)
me me
If we take the magnetization for N = 5 ´ 1028 atoms  m3 , we have, with Μr » 1
M N Μo Μr e2 R2 5 ´ 1028 4 Π 10-7 2.56 ´ 10-38 10-20
Χ= =- » » 10-5 (0.2)
H me 9.1 ´ 10-31
This is the correct order of magnitude when compared with experiment.
Diamagnetic salts

Material È Al2 O3 BaCl2 NaCl Diamond Graphite

Χ=Μr -1 È -0.5 10-5 -2.0 10-5 -1.2 10-5 -2.1 10-5 -12.0 10-5
_________ ___ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______
Material È Cu Au Ge Si Se
Χ=Μr -1 È -0.9 10-5 -3.6 10-5 -0.8 10-5 -0.3 10-5 -1.7 10-5

The permeability of a diamagnetic materil is » 10-5 below 1. For all practical purposes it can be taken as 1. The suscepibility is
very small and negative. The atomic theory (Eq (0.1) above), which examines response of electronic orbits to a changing magnetic
induction using Faraday induction, gives the correct magnitude of measured susceptibilities.

§ 2. Paramagnetism
Paramagnetism is displayed by most materials with permanent atomic dipoles. The theory of paramagnetic gases is
straightforward. For definiteness and simplicity assume a material with atomic dipole moment given by a single spin angular
momentum. This will be the case for atoms with a single electron in an outermost s orbital. Quantum mechanically there are two
values of the spin quantum number ms given by ±1/2. The magnetic moment in the ms = ± 1  2 states is ¡ Β. The energy is
± Μo Β H as there is no interaction between magnetic moments. Now the spins populate themeselves in the two energy levels
e±Μo Β HkT
according to Boltzmann probability p± = . If there are N+ (N- ) atoms per unit volume with electron spin magnetic
e+Μo Β HkT+e-Μo Β HkT
moment parallel (antiparallel) to the field then the net magnetic moment is given by
e+Μo Β HkT - e-Μo Β HkT
M = N+ Β + N- H-ΒL = N p+ Β - N p- Β = N ΒB F = N Β tanh
Μo Β H

e+Μo Β HkT + e-Μo Β HkT kT

The following figure shows a plot of M  NΒ vs. x = Μo Β H  k T.
2 LectureNotes-17.nb

è It is obvious that near x = 0 the graph starts with a slope of 1. This is understandable as tanh(x)®x as x® 0.
è Therefore the high temperature behaviour of a paramagnetic material is given by
N Μo Β2 M N Μo Β2 C N Μo Β2
M= H and Χ = = = , where C = = 7.832 ´ 10-30 N (0.3)
kT H kT T k
è A x®¥, tanh(x)®1, so that for very low temperatures and high fields, the magnetization saturates to N Β. This makes sense as
decrease in disordering influence of thermal agitations as well as increase in ordering influence of the field H both lead to
better alignment of magnetic dipoles and saturation of magnetization.
è For reasonably strong fields H » 106 A  mL at room temperature, we have x »
4 Π 10-7 9.274 10-24 106
» 3 ´ 10-3 , and we can use
1.38 ´ 10-23 300
the approximation tanhHxL » x. Thus at room temperature, even if H is quite large, we have
M N Μo Β2 0.4
Χ= = » (0.4)
H kT T
The estimate gives the correct order of magnitude for susceptibility of paramagnetic salts.
Paramagnetic salts

Material È CrCl2 Cr2 O3 CoO CoSo4 .H2 O MnSO4

Χ=Μr -1 È 1.5 10-3 1.7 10-3 5.8 10-3 2.0 10-3 3.6 10-3
_________ ___ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______
Material È Fe2 O3 Fe2 HSO4 L3 FeCl3 FeSO4 NiSO4
Χ=Μr -1 È 1.4 10-3 2.2 10-3 3.7 10-3 2.8 10-3 1.2 10-3

From Eq (0.3) it is clear that the inverse of susceptibility of a paramagnetic material is linear in temperature. The following figure
depicts this.