Magnetic Properties of Solids

Materials may be classified by their response to externally applied magnetic fields as diamagnetic, paramagnetic, or ferromagnetic. These magnetic responses differ greatly in strength. Diamagnetism is a property of all materials and opposes applied magnetic fields, but is very weak. Paramagnetism, when present, is stronger than diamagnetism and produces magnetization in the direction of the applied field, and proportional to the applied field. Ferromagnetic effects are very large, producing magnetizations sometimes orders of magnitude greater than the applied field and as such are much larger than either diamagnetic or paramagnetic effects. The magnetization of a material is expressed in terms of density of net magnetic dipole moments in the material. We define a vector quantity called the magnetization M by

M = total/V
. Then the total magnetic field B in the material is given by

B = B0 + 0M
where 0 is the magnetic permeability of space and B0 is the externally applied magnetic field. When magnetic fields inside of materials are calculated using Ampere's law or the Biot-Savart law, then the 0 in those equations is typically replaced by just with the definition

= Km0
where Km is called the relative permeability. If the material does not respond to the external magnetic field by producing any magnetization, then Km = 1. Another commonly used magnetic quantity is the magnetic susceptibility which specifies how much the relative permeability differs from one.

Magnetic susceptibility m = Km - 1
For paramagnetic and diamagnetic materials the relative permeability is very close to 1 and the magnetic susceptibility very close to zero. For ferromagnetic materials, these quantities may be very large. Another way to deal with the magnetic fields which arise from magnetization of materials is to introduce a quantity called magnetic field strength H . It can be defined by the relationship

H = B0/0 = B/0 - M
and has the value of unambiguously designating the driving magnetic influence from external currents in a material, independent of the material's magnetic response. The relationship for B above can be written in the equivalent form

B = 0(H + M)
H and M will have the same units, amperes/meter. Ferromagnetic materials will undergo a small mechanical change when magnetic fields are applied, either expanding or contracting slightly. This effect is called magnetostriction.

Magnetic Susceptibilities of Paramagnetic and Diamagnetic Materials at 20C

Material Paramagnetic Iron oxide (FeO) Iron amonium Uranium Platinum Tungsten Cesium Aluminum Lithium Magnesium Sodium Oxygen gas Diamagnetic Ammonia Bismuth Mercury Silver Carbon (diamond) Carbon (graphite) Lead Sodium chloride Copper Water -.26 -16.6 -2.9 -2.6 -2.1 -1.6 -1.8 -1.4 -1.0 -0.91 The gases N2 and H2 are weakly diamagnetic with susceptabilities -0.0005 x 10-5 for N2 and -0.00021 x 10-5 for H2. That is in contrast to the large paramagnetic susceptability of O2 in the table. 720 66 40 26 6.8 5.1 2.2 1.4 1.2 0.72 0.19 m=Km-1 (x 10-5) Here the quantity Km is called the relative permeability, a quantity which measures the ratio of the internal magnetization to the applied magnetic field. If the material does not respond to the magnetic field by magnetizing, then the field in the material will be just the applied field and the relative permeability K m =1. A positive relative permeability greater than 1 implies that the material magnetizes in response to the applied magnetic field. The quantity m is called magnetic susceptibility, and it is just the permeability minus 1. The magnetic susceptibility is then zero if the material does not respond with any magnetization. So both quantities give the same information, and both are dimensionless quantities. For ordinary solids and liquids at room temperature, the relative permeability Km is typically in the range 1.00001 to 1.003. We recognize this weak magnetic character of common materials by the saying "they are not magnetic", which recognizes their great contrast to the magnetic response of ferromagnetic materials. More precisely, they are either paramagnetic or diamagnetic, but that represents a very small magnetic response compared to ferromagnets.