magnetic susceptibility, quantitative measure of the extent to which a material may be magnetized in relation to a given applied magnetic field.

The magnetic susceptibility of a material, commonly symbolized by m, is equal to the ratio of the magnetization M within the material to the applied magnetic field strength H, or m = M/H. This ratio, strictly speaking, is the volume susceptibility, because magnetization essentially involves a certain measure of magnetism (dipole moment) per unit volume. Magnetic materials may be classified as diamagnetic, paramagnetic, or ferromagnetic on the basis of their susceptibilities. Diamagnetic materials, such as bismuth, when placed in an external magnetic field, partly expel the external field from within themselves and, if shaped like a rod, line up at right angles to a nonuniform magnetic field. Diamagnetic materials are characterized by constant, small negative susceptibilities, only slightly affected by changes in temperature. Paramagnetic materials, such as platinum, increase a magnetic field in which they are placed because their atoms have small magnetic dipole moments that partly line up with the external field. Paramagnetic materials have constant, small positive susceptibilities, less than 1/1,000 at room temperature, which means that the enhancement of the magnetic field caused by the alignment of magnetic dipoles is relatively small compared with the applied field. Paramagnetic susceptibility is inversely proportional to the value of the absolute temperature. Temperature increases cause greater thermal vibration of atoms, which interferes with alignment of magnetic dipoles. Ferromagnetic materials, such as iron and cobalt, do not have constant susceptibilities; the magnetization is not usually proportional to the applied field strength. Measured ferromagnetic susceptibilities have relatively large positive values, sometimes in excess of 1,000. Thus, within ferromagnetic materials, the magnetization may be more than 1,000 times larger than the external magnetizing field, because such materials are composed of highly magnetized clusters of atomic magnets (ferromagnetic domains) that are more easily lined up by the external field

Iron, nickel, cobalt and some of the rare earths (gadolinium, dysprosium) exhibit a unique magnetic behavior which is called ferromagnetism because iron (ferrum in Latin) is the most common and most dramatic example. Samarium and neodymium in alloys with cobalt have been used to fabricate very strong rare-earth magnets. Ferromagnetic materials exhibit a long-range ordering phenomenon at the atomic level which causes the unpaired electron spins to line up parallel with each other in a region called a domain. Within the domain, the magnetic field is intense, but in a bulk sample the material will usually be unmagnetized because the many domains will themselves be randomly oriented with respect to one another. Ferromagnetism manifests itself in the fact that a small externally imposed magnetic field, say from a solenoid, can cause the magnetic domains to line up with each other and the

material is said to be magnetized. The driving magnetic field will then be increased by a large factor which is usually expressed as a relative permeability for the material. There are many practical applications of ferromagnetic materials, such as the electromagnet. Ferromagnets will tend to stay magnetized to some extent after being subjected to an external magnetic field. This tendency to "remember their magnetic history" is called hysteresis. The fraction of the saturation magnetization which is retained when the driving field is removed is called the remanence of the material, and is an important factor in permanent magnets. All ferromagnets have a maximum temperature where the ferromagnetic property disappears as a result of thermal agitation. This temperature is called the Curie temperature. Ferromagntic materials will respond mechanically to an impressed magnetic field, changing length slightly in the direction of the applied field. This property, called magnetostriction, leads to the familiar hum of transformers as they respond mechanically to 60 Hz AC voltages.

Magnetic Domains
The microscopic ordering of electron spins characteristic of ferromagnetic materials leads to the formation of regions of magnetic alignment called domains.

The main implication of the domains is that there is already a high degree of magnetization in ferromagnetic materials within individual domains, but that in the absence of external magnetic fields those domains are randomly oriented. A modest applied magnetic field can cause a larger degree of alignment of the magnetic moments with the external field, giving a large multiplication of the applied field. These illustrations of domains are conceptual only and not meant to give an accurate scale of the size or shape of domains. The microscopic evidence about magnetization indicates that the net magnetization of ferromagnetic materials in response to an external magnetic field may actually occur more by the growth of the domains parallel to the applied field at the expense of other domains rather than the reorientation of the domains themselves as implied in the sketch.

Some of the more direct evidence we have about domains comes from imaging of domains in single crystals of ferromagnetic materials. The sketches above are after Young and are adapted from magnified images of domain boundaries in single crystals of nickel. They suggest that the effect of external magnetic fields is to cause the domain boundaries to shift in favor of those domains which are parallel to the applied field. It is not clear how this applies to bulk magnetic materials which are polycrystalline. Keep in mind the fact that the internal magnetic fields which come from the long range ordering of the electron spins are much stronger, sometimes hundreds of times stronger, than the external magnetic fields required to produce these changes in domain alignment. The effective multiplication of the external field which can be achieved by the alignment of the domains is often expressed in terms of the relative permeability. Domains may be made visible with the use of magnetic colloidal suspensions which concentrate along the domain boundaries. The domain boundaries can be imaged by polarized light, and also with the use of electron diffraction. Observation of domain boundary movement under the influence of applied magnetic fields has aided in the development of theoretical treatments. It has been demonstrated that the formation of domains minimizes the magnetic contribution to the free energy.

Relative Permeability
The magnetic constant 0 = 4 x 10-7 T m/A is called the permeability of space. The permeabilities of most materials are very close to 0 since most materials will be classified as either paramagnetic or diamagnetic. But in ferromagnetic materials the permeability may be very large and it is convenient to characterize the materials by a relative permeability.

Table of magnetic properties

When ferromagnetic materials are used in applications like an iron-core solenoid, the relative permeability gives you an idea of the kind of multiplication of the applied magnetic field that can be achieved by having the ferromagnetic core present. So for an ordinary iron core you might

expect a magnification of about 200 compared to the magnetic field produced by the solenoid current with just an air core. This statement has exceptions and limits, since you do reach a saturation magnetization of the iron core quickly, as illustrated in the discussion of hysteresis.
Magnetic properties of solids

Diamagnetism
The orbital motion of electrons creates tiny atomic current loops, which produce magnetic fields. When an external magnetic field is applied to a material, these current loops will tend to align in such a way as to oppose the applied field. This may be viewed as an atomic version of Lenz's law: induced magnetic fields tend to oppose the change which created them. Materials in which this effect is the only magnetic response are called diamagnetic. All materials are inherently diamagnetic, but if the atoms have some net magnetic moment as in paramagnetic materials, or if there is long-range ordering of atomic magnetic moments as in ferromagnetic materials, these stronger effects are always dominant. Diamagnetism is the residual magnetic behavior when materials are neither paramagnetic nor ferromagnetic. Any conductor will show a strong diamagnetic effect in the presence of changing magnetic fields because circulating currents will be generated in the conductor to oppose the magnetic field changes. A superconductor will be a perfect diamagnet since there is no resistance to the forming of the current loops.
Table of magnetic susceptibilities The standard SI unit for magnetic field is the Tesla, which can be seen from the magnetic part of the Lorentz force law Fmagnetic = qvB to be composed of (Newton x second)/(Coulomb x meter). A smaller magnetic field unit is the Gauss (1 Tesla = 10,000 Gauss

Magnetic Dipole Moment

The magnetic moment can be considered to be a vector quantity with direction perpendicular to the current loop in the right-hand-rule direction. The torque is given by

Index Magnetic force applications Magnetic field concepts

As seen in the geometry of a current loop, this torque tends to line up the magnetic moment with the magnetic field B, so this represents its lowest energy configuration. The potential energy associated with the magnetic moment is

so that the difference in energy between aligned and anti-aligned is

These relationships for a finite current loop extend to the magnetic dipoles of electron orbits and to the intrinsic magnetic moment associated with electron spin. Also important are nuclear magnetic moments.

Magnetization and magnetic susceptibility

Magnetization M is a normalized moment (Am2). We will use the symbol M for volume normalization (units of Am-1) or for mass normalization (units of Am2kg-1). Volume normalized magnetization therefore has the same units as H, implying that there is a current somewhere, even in permanent magnets. In the classical view (pre-quantum mechanics), subatomic charges such as protons and electrons can be thought of as tracing out tiny circuits and behaving as tiny magnetic moments. They respond to external magnetic fields and give rise to an induced magnetization. The relationship between the magnetization induced in a material MI and the external field H is defined as:

(1.3)

The parameter b is known as the bulk magnetic susceptibility of the material; it can be a complicated function of orientation, temperature, state of stress, time scale of observation and applied field, but is often treated as a scalar. Because M and H have the same units, b is dimensionless. In practice, the magnetic response of a substance to an applied field can be normalized by volume (as in Equation 1.3) or by mass or not normalized at all. We will use the symbol for mass normalized susceptibility and K for the raw measurements (see Table 1.1) when necessary. Certain materials can produce magnetic fields in the absence of external magnetic fields (i.e., they are permanent magnets). As we shall see in later chapters, these so-called spontaneous magnetic moments are also the result of spins of electrons which, in some crystals, act in a coordinated fashion, thereby producing a net magnetic field. The resulting spontaneous magnetization can be fixed by various mechanisms and can preserve records of ancient magnetic fields. This remanent magnetization forms the basis of the field of paleomagnetism and will be discussed at length in subsequent chapters
Magnetic moment

An electrical current in a wire produces a magnetic field that curls around the wire. If we bend the wire into a loop with an area r2 that carries a current i (Figure 1.2a), the current loop would create the magnetic field shown by pattern of the iron filings. This magnetic field is that same as the field that would be produced by a permanent magnet. We can quantify the strength of that hypothetical magnet in terms of a magnetic moment m (Figure 1.2b). The magnetic moment is created by a current i and also depends on the area of the current loop (the bigger the loop, the bigger the moment). Therefore, the magnitude of the moment can by quantified by m = ir2. The moment created by a set of loops (as shown in Figure 1.2c) would be the sum of the n individual loops, i.e.:
(1.1)

So, now we know the units of m: Am2. In nature, magnetic moments are carried by magnetic minerals the most common of which are magnetite and hematite (see Chapter 6 for details).

a) Iron filings show the magnetic field generated by current flowing in a loop. b) A current loop with current i and area r2 produces a magnetic moment m. c) The magnetic field of loops arranged as a solenoid is the sum of the contribution of the individual loops. [Iron Figure 1.2: filings pictures from Jiles, 1991.]

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B and H are closely related and in paleomagnetic practice, both B and H are referred to as the magnetic field. Strictly speaking, B is the induction and H is the field, but the distinction is often blurred. The relationship between B and H is given by:
(1.4)

where is a physical constant known as the permeability. In a vacuum, this is the permeability of free space, o. In the SI system, has dimensions of henries per meter and o is 4 10-7H m-1. In most cases of paleomagnetic interest, we are outside the magnetized body so M = 0 and B = oH. [next] [prev] [prev-tail] [front] [up] Table 1.1: Conversion between SI and cgs units. Parameter Magnetic moment (m) Magnetization by volume (M) by mass () Magnetic Field (H) SI unit Am2 Am-1 Am2kg-1 Am-1 cgs unit emu Conversion 1 A m2 = 103 emu

emu cm-3 1 Am-1 = 10-3 emu cm-3 -1 emu gm 1 Am2kg-1 = 1 emu gm-1 Oersted (oe) 1 Am-1 = 4 x 10-3 oe

Magnetic Induction (B) Permeability of free space (o) Susceptibility total (K:mH) by volume ( : M H) by mass (:mm 1 _ H)

T Hm-1 m3 m3kg -1

Gauss (G) 1

1 T = 104 G 4 x 10-7 Hm-1 = 1

emu oe-1 1 m3 = 106 4 emu oe-1 -3 -1 emu cm oe 1 S.I. = 1 _ 4 emu cm-3 oe-1 1 m3kg-1 = 103 4 emu g-1 oe-1 -1 1 emu g oe

1 H = kg m2A-2s-2, 1 emu = 1 G cm3, B = oH (in vacuum), 1 T = kg A-1 s-2