Explanation of magnetism
Electrons are perpetually rotating, and, since the electron has a charge, its spin produces a small magnetic moment. Magnetic moments are small magnets with north and south poles. The direction of the moment is from the south to the north pole. In nonmagnetic materials the electron moments cancel, since there is random ordering to the direction of the electron spins. Whenever two electrons have their moments aligned in opposite directions, their effects tend to cancel. Magnets are formed when a large number of the electrons align their individual moments in the same direction. Only a small percentage of crystals are magnetic. The forces that tend to align the electron spins are subtle. There are three separate parts to the explanation of magnetism. They are as follows:
1. Most magnets are composed of atoms whose valence electrons are in d- or f-shells. Atomic shell notation refers to angular momentum, where s has zero unit, p has one, d has two, and f has three. Electrons in d-shells tend to be bound to the ion, and those in f-shells are bound even more tightly.
2. Each electron orbital can be occupied by two electrons—one with spin up and one with spin down. The d-shell has five orbital states and 10 electrons when filled; the f-shell has seven orbital states and 14 electrons when filled. Electrons are added one at a time to the d-states according to the empirical rule that the electrons arrange themselves in the state with the maximum spin and the maximum magnetic moment. If the first electron has spin up, the next four will also have spin up. A maximum of five electrons with spin up are allowed in the d-shell, so the sixth must have spin down. Similarly, the f-shell accepts seven electrons with the same direction of spin before taking electrons with the opposite spin orientation. The order in which electrons fill atomic shells is described by Hund’s rules, of which the first is maximizing the total spin. Atoms with electrons in partially filled d- and f-shells usually have a nonzero total spin and thus a net magnetic moment. These magnetic ions are the building blocks for magnetic crystals.
Hund’s first rule is due to a phenomenon called electron exchange. As discussed above, a fundamental rule of quantum mechanics, the Pauli exclusion principle, states that no two electrons with the same direction of spin can occupy the same point in space at the same time. Electrons have charge and repel one another. If two electrons come close together, a large amount of repulsive energy is produced. Physical systems prefer the state of lowest energy, and so electrons avoid such close approach. When their spins are parallel, electrons avoid each other because of the Pauli principle. Electrons in the same shell thus prefer to have their spins parallel, since this configuration keeps the electrons apart and thereby reduces the amount of repulsive energy. The concept of electron exchange is the basis of magnetism. It explains why ions such as iron have large magnetic moments. In divalent iron (Fe2+) the six d-electrons are arranged to achieve maximum electron spin and magnetic moment.
3. Individual ions with fixed magnetic moments may cooperatively align their moments, resulting in the presence of magnetic properties of the crystal as a whole. Ferromagnet crystals have the magnetic moments from all their constituent ions aligned in the same direction; the magnetic moment of the crystal is the summation of the individual moments of the ions. There must be a magnetic force between the different ions that causes them to cooperatively align their moments. This force is also due to electron exchange. The d-orbitals from neighbouring ions overlap weakly into covalent bonds. The d-electrons on the separate ions are shared with the neighbour through covalent bonding. The electron exchange will tend to align the spins on the two neighbours. Aligning all pairs of neighbours aligns all ions. The exchange force between neighbours is much weaker than the force within the atomic shell of one ion. Although weak, the force is sufficient to cause ferromagnetism.
Iron is a typical ferromagnet. Not all bars of iron are magnets; the existence of magnetism is determined by the nature of the domains within the bar. A domain is a region of a crystal in which all the ions are ferromagnetically aligned in the same direction. A bar may be composed of many domains, each having a different magnetic orientation. Such a bar would not appear to be magnetic. Each piece of the bar is magnetic, but the domains have moments that point in different directions, so the bar has no net moment. If the bar of iron is placed in a strong magnetic field, however, the bar becomes magnetic. The field causes the bar to become a single domain with all moments aligned along the external field. The domains do not rotate their moments; instead, the walls between domains move. The domain with a moment along the field grows, while the others become smaller. If removed from the magnetic field, the iron bar will remain magnetized for a considerable time period. Nearly all bars of iron are polycrystalline: they have many small grains of single crystals, which are packed together with random orientation. A grain could be a single domain, a domain could include many grains, or a large grain could have several domains.
Ferromagnetic materials change their magnetic ordering at a characteristic temperature Tc called the Curie temperature. The Curie temperatures for three common ferromagnetics—iron, cobalt, and nickel—are 1,043 K; 1,394 K; and 631 K, respectively. For temperatures below Tc the magnetic moments of the ions are aligned and the crystal is magnetic. For temperatures above Tc the crystal is not ferromagnetic, since the individual atomic moments are no longer aligned. Above Tc the moments have short-range order but not long-range order. Short-range order means there is local ordering. If a moment points in one direction, its neighbours have a tendency to point in the same direction. This tendency is maintained over several lattice sites but is not maintained for long distances. Long-range order is the tendency for moments to align for large distances. For temperatures a few degrees below Tc the moments have strong short-range order but only a small amount of long-range order, so the bar is not very magnetic. The tendency for long-range order increases at lower temperature. The Curie temperature is the point where long-range order begins as the temperature is lowered.
If an iron bar is heated to a temperature above Tc, the bar is no longer magnetic. If the bar is then cooled to a temperature below Tc, the grains become magnetic, but they orient their moments in random directions, so the bar as a whole is not magnetic. A bar can be demagnetized by heating the bar and then cooling it. By inserting it in a large magnetic field, the bar can be remagnetized.
Ferromagnetism is found in many insulators as well as metals. Chromium bromide (CrBr3) is an insulator since chromium is trivalent and a bromine atom needs one electron to complete its outer shell. The trivalent chromium atoms each have a moment, and these align ferromagnetically below the Curie temperature of 37 K. Gadolinium chloride (GdCl3; Tc = 2.2 K) and europium oxide (EuO; Tc = 77 K) are two other examples among many.
Many crystals have magnetic ions that are ordered in arrangements other than ferromagnetic. In antiferromagnetic ordering, the moments pointing in one direction are balanced by others pointing in the opposite direction, with the result that the substance has no net magnetization. The exchange interaction between ions in this case has the opposite sign and favours the alternate arrangements of spins. The sign of the exchange interaction between ions depends on the length of the covalent bond and the bonding angles; it may have either orientation. The characteristic temperature associated with antiferromagnetism is called the Néel temperature TN. Below TN the ions are antiferromagnetically ordered, while above this temperature there is no long-range antiparallel order. Some examples of antiferromagnetic crystals are manganese oxide (MnO; TN = 116 K), manganese sulfide (MnS; TN = 160 K), and iron oxide (FeO; TN = 198 K). Manganese oxide is an insulator since manganese atoms are divalent and oxygen atoms accept two electrons. The manganese ion has a fixed magnetic moment. The crystal structure of manganese oxide is the same as that of sodium chloride shown in . Below the Néel temperature the atomic unit cell doubles in size to include two atoms of each type of ion. This is necessary because below TN neighbouring manganese atoms have moments in the opposite direction and are no longer equivalent; the unit cell must therefore include one moment in each of the two directions. Fluorides such as manganese fluoride (MnF2), iron (II) fluoride (FeF2), cobalt fluoride (CoF2), and nickel fluoride (NiF2) are other crystals that exhibit antiferromagnetic ordering of the transition metal ions.
Ferrimagnetism is another type of magnetic ordering. In ferrimagnets the moments are in an antiparallel alignment, but they do not cancel. The best example of a ferrimagnetic mineral is magnetite (Fe3O4). Two iron ions are trivalent, while one is divalent. The two trivalent ions align with opposite moments and cancel one another, so the net moment arises from the divalent iron ion. The historic lodestone that was the first magnetic material discovered was a form of magnetite. Another class of ferrimagnets has the garnet structure; Y3Fe5O12 is one such crystal. Only the iron ions are magnetic. Three point in one direction and two in the other, so there is a net magnetic moment of one iron ion in the unit cell. However, if a rare-earth ion such as gadolinium (Gd) is substituted for yttrium (Y), then the rare-earth ion also contributes to the ferrimagnetism.
Ferrites are oxides of iron with the formula MFe2O4, where M is a divalent ion such as nickel, zinc, cadmium, manganese, or magnesium. The ferric iron ion is trivalent, and the oxygen ion accepts two electrons. Actually M can also be divalent iron, forming magnetite (Fe3O4). The crystal structure is called spinel, which is the mineral name for MgAl2O4. Ferrites are electrical insulators with magnetic ordering. Their insulating quality makes them useful as magnetic cores. When metallic ferromagnetic materials are exposed to alternating magnetic fields, significant heating losses occur from eddy currents. Ferrite magnets greatly reduce such heat losses because of their high resistivity. They also absorb electromagnetic radiation of very long wavelengths. This property is unusual, since metals reflect such radiation while insulators transmit it. In small crystallites of ferrites, the electromagnetic radiation causes the magnetic moment to rotate at the frequency of light. The absorption frequency of the light depends on the detailed shape of the crystal grain. A polycrystalline material, with a range of grain sizes and shapes, absorbs over a broad range of radar frequencies. Ferrite crystals are a major ingredient in snooper paint, which makes stealth airplanes undetectable by radar. Regular airplanes reflect radar, and the reflected signals can be used to locate the aircraft. Stealth planes absorb the radar signals and so cannot be located in this way.
The Kondo effect
Magnetic ions have interesting properties when they are found as impurities in nonmagnetic crystals. They usually retain their magnetic moment, so small magnets are distributed randomly throughout the crystal. If the host crystal is a metal, the magnetic impurities make an interesting contribution to the electrical resistivity. The conduction electrons scatter from the magnetic impurity. Since the conduction electron and the impurity both have spin, they can mutually flip spins while scattering. The spin-flip scattering is strong at low temperatures and actually increases slightly as temperature decreases. This phenomenon is called the Kondo effect after the Japanese theoretical physicist Jun Kondo, who first explained the increase in resistivity resulting from magnetic impurities. There is a characteristic temperature, called the Kondo temperature, which depends on the impurity and on the metallic host. The resistivity increases at low temperature, starting near the Kondo temperature. A typical example of a Kondo system is iron impurities in copper; the system’s Kondo temperature is 24 K. The solid line in Figure 10 shows the resistivity in copper at low temperature when there are 110 iron impurities per 1,000,000 copper atoms. The dashed line a is the resistivity in the absence of impurities. It increases at higher temperature because the electron scatters from ion vibrations. The dashed line b is the resistivity from spin-flip scattering. Nearly all transition metal atoms are found as magnetic impurities in copper or gold. Each system has a different Kondo temperature, which varies from 1,000 K to a fraction of 1 K. The spin-flip part of the electrical resistivity is unique in that it is large at low temperatures and decreases at high temperatures; most contributions to the resistivity increase at high temperatures.Gerald D. Mahan