21/05/2019 Collective magnetism: Ferromagnetism et al.

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Collective magnetism: Ferromagnetism et al.

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In this section:

Introduction

Concepts
What is Lattices, bases Bravais lattices Typical structure Diffraction Dispersion
Condensed and unit cells and symmetry types of crystals theory Lattice vibrations relations Heat capacity
Matter?

Collective The other side of

Phonon H field and B Diamagnetism Paramagnetism magnetism: e-mag:
spectroscopy field and and conduction ferromagnetism Ferroelectrics
paramagnetism electrons and its relatives and
piezoelectrics

Structure Determination
Transmission Scanning
Structure electron electron Scanned probe Plane groups, Group theory Scattering theory X-ray and
determination microscopy microscopy microscopies space groups neutron sources

Diffraction of Point defects, Dislocations and

disordered Small-angle defect equilibria, their motion, Strain Quasicrystals
structures scattering diffusion material strength

Materials physics

Types of phase Order of phase A hint of Landau Tracking

transition transitions theory transitions Subject index
experimentally

Home
News
Research
Hysteresis
Beamtimes
Papers If a paramagnetic material is placed inside a magnetic field, the magnetic moments of
Teaching atoms tend to align with the external field. However, as soon as the external field is
ph215
Thermodynamics removed, thermal disorder will disrupt the alignment very quickly. In a ferromagnet, on
Quantum the other hand, the alignment persists after the field is removed. This is caused by an
Phys.
Partial Diff.
interaction between the individual moments rather than just between the individual
Eq. moments and the external field.
ph324/335/338
Condensed
Matter
When a ferromagnetic
ph327 material is placed in an
Atomic Phys. external field for the first
Fourier
Y3/4 projects time (purple curve
Walking in starting at the origin), the
Wales magnetisation begins to
Other build up linearly at first
Diversions (green tangent shown).
In this section After a while, a further
increasing field begins to
subject index have diminishing effects
Introduction
on the resulting
magnetisation, so the
Concepts curve begins to level off
What is Condensed and ultimately reaches
Matter?
Lattices, bases and
saturation, M , no matter whether the field is held constant or increased any further.
s

unit cells

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Bravais lattices and
symmetry
When the external field is reduced again, the magnetisation is maintained at first, and
Typical structure
then gradually decreases as the field subsides. When the external field reaches zero, the
types of crystals magnetisation is still positive. The level of magnetisation after switching off an external
Diffraction theory field is known as remanence, M . As the field is ramped up in the opposite direction, the
r

Lattice vibrations magnetisation (now opposing the external field - top left quadrant) continues to
Dispersion diminish until it reaches zero. The external field needed to remove the magnetisation
relations
from a previously magnetised ferromagnet is the coercive field, H . As the field's c
Heat capacity
Phonon
magnitude continues to rise beyond this point, magnetisation parallel to the field builds
spectroscopy up until saturation is reached again.
H field and B field
Diamagnetism and Once magnetised, the magnetisation continues to loop around the origin when the
paramagnetism polarity of the field is cycled without ever returning to it. This infinite loop is known as
Paramagnetism and hysteresis. The only way to return the material to a demagnetised state is to supply
conduction
electrons thermal or mechanical energy to the specimen.
Collective
magnetism:
ferromagnetism
The area enclosed by the hysteresis loop (shaded area in the Figure) is a measure of the
and its relatives amount of energy stored in the magnetic interaction. Hard magnets are materials with a
The other side of e- high remanence and coercive field, thus a steeply sloping hysteresis curve enclosing a
mag: Ferroelectrics large area. These are good for magnetic storage devices, where two well-defined states
and piezoelectrics
need to be distinguished and protected against incidental change of state. The opposite,
Structure soft magnets are better suited to mechanical control applications (e.g. positioning) since
Determination they give finer control of the magnetisation via the applied field.
Structure
determination
Transmission
electron
microscopy
Domains, frustration, and Bloch walls
Scanning electron
microscopy
Scanned probe In a ferromagnetic
microscopies material, the interaction
Plane groups, space between neighbouring
groups
Group theory
moments is strong
Scattering theory enough to overcome
X-ray and neutron thermal fluctuations.
sources Effectively, each moment
Diffraction of aligns itself according to
disordered
structures the magnetic field
Small-angle constituted by its
scattering neighbours. In a
Point defects, spontaneously
defect equilibria,
diffusion magnetised material (i.e.
Dislocations and in the absence of an
their motion,
material strength
external field) this
Strain alignment process occurs simultaneously in different parts of the sample, resulting in
Quasicrystals magnetic domains with uniform orientation of magnetic moments. Although structural
grain boundaries can impair the dynamics of these domains, the size of the domains is
Materials physics largely independent of the crystalline grain structure: domains can transcend grain
Types of phase
transition boundaries, and grains can contain multiple domains.
Order of phase
transitions Domains are separated by Bloch walls. Again, these walls have no structural basis; they
A hint of Landau are simply the boundaries either side of which individual moments have a different
theory
orientation as they belong to adjacent domains. The moments near the Bloch walls have
Tracking transitions
experimentally an increased amount of potential (magnetic) energy due to the fact that they have
neighbours producing an opposing field, whichever way they orientate. This is known
Dr Rudolf Winter as magnetic frustration.
Materials Physics
Aberystwyth
When a spontaneously magnetised ferromagnet is placed in an external magnetic field,
University
Penglais the balance of interactions on the magnetic moments near the Bloch walls is disturbed.
If the domain on one side of a Bloch wall is roughly aligned with the external field but
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If the domain on one side of a Bloch wall is roughly aligned with the external field but
Aberystwyth
SY23 3BZ
the other domain isn't, the magnetic moments at the Bloch wall will be able to reduce
Wales their potential energy by reorientating to match the orientation of the favourable
domain. Thus the favourable domains grow and the unfavourable ones shrink. Note that
Ffiseg Defnyddiau
Prifysgol there is no wholesale re-
Aberystwyth orientation of domains, a
Penglais process which would
Aberystwyth have a much higher
SY23 3BZ
Cymru
activation energy than
this piecemeal process.
ruw@aber.ac.uk At saturation, all
individual moments have
flipped and the whole
magnet consists of a
Sunset today: single domain of
21:15 moments aligned with the
1'27 later than
external field. If the field
y'day
is subsequently switched off, domains will recur, but the orientation of the previous
external field will remain the dominant component. This explains the remanence of the
magnetised ferromagnet.

If a saturated ferromagnet
consists of just one single
domain, magnetic
moments have to
reorientate spontaneously
to form new domains
when the external field is
removed. This process is
driven by the reduction of
the spread of the
magnetic field supported
by the magnetic structure
of the ferromagnet. In its
single-domain saturated
state, the magnetic field
spreads out far into the surrounding space, thereby interacting with magnetic moments
and inducing currents elsewhere. The spread of the field and its interactions are reduced
by growing an opposing domain such that field lines only connect adjacent domains at
the ends of the magnet. A further reduction of the supported field can be achieved by
terminal domains which keep the magnetic field confined to the magnet itself.

Other collective magnetic phenomena

While the ferromagnetic

state is the most
important collective
magnetic phenomenon,
there are other interaction
patterns that result in
collective magnetism: In
an antiferromagnet,
adjacent moments
orientate themselves in
opposite direction, thus
cancelling each other out
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cancelling each other out
- no net external
magnetisation is
observed. If there are two
different chemical elements present in the sample, their total angular momentum and
therefore magnetic moment will usually be different, resulting in moments of different
magnitude on alternate lattice positions. This results in ferrimagnetism, where two
distinct sub-lattices overlap. There are also other more complex forms of collective
magnetism such as the skewed arrangement shown; all of these have in common an
ordered periodic pattern of magnetic moment within each domain.

Strength of the magnetic interaction

The magnetic ordering

competes with thermal
disorder. In energy terms,
this means that the
ordering prevails as long
as the magnetic energy,
p B
m exis larger than the
thermal energy, k T . B

This marks the phase

transition between the
ferromagnetic (ordered,
low-temperature) phase
and the paramagnetic
(disordered, high-
temperature) phase. The
transition occurs at the Curie temperature, where magnetic and thermal energy are
exactly balanced.

However, B isn't any external magnetic field here (as that would mean the transition
ex

would vanish in the absence of an external field), but rather an internal magnetic field in
the material that characterises the interaction between the individual moments. This is
known as the exchange field, a very large but short-range field constituted by nearby
moments which interacts with the central magnetic moment. Each individual moment is
subject to such an exchange field originating from its neighbours. On its local length
scale, the exchange field is much stronger than any external field would be, of the order
of 10 T locally.
3

The exchange field causes the susceptibility of the paramagnetic (high-temperature)

phase of a ferromagnet to deviate from the Curie law usually observed in paramagnetic
materials. The magnetisation of a ferromagnet above the transition temperature can be
expressed in terms of the susceptibility χ of a paramagnet subject to the exchange
C

field:

M = χC (B0 + Bex ) ,

where B is the externally applied field. Using the Curie law, χ = and the fact that
0
C

the exchange field is due to the concerted effect of all the magnetic moments in the
sample and therefore proportional to the magnetisation, B = λM, we have ex

C (B0 + λM )
M = .
T

The susceptibility χ of the paramagnetic phase of a ferromagnet is, as usual, defined

CW

relative to the external field only, and by re-arranging the above:

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M T = C B0 + λC M ⇔ M (T − λC ) = C B0 ,

we can evaluate it as
M C
χCW = = .
B0 T − λC

Thus, the susceptibility of the paramagnetic (high-temperature) phase of a

ferromagnetic material depends on the temperature, but it's not the simple inverse

relationship we know
from the Curie law of
paramagnetism. Instead,
the Curie-Weiss law
applies:

C
χCW = ,
T − TC

where T is the Curie

C

temperature, i.e. the

critical temperature for
the ferro-/paramagnetic
transition, C is the Curie
constant of the
paramagnetic phase, and λ is the strength of the interaction between magnetic moments.

This means that the paramagnetic phase of a ferromagnetic material behaves in the
same way as it approaches the Curie temperature from above as a paramagnetic
material does when cooling towards zero Kelvin. One might say that a paramagnet is a
ferromagnet whose Curie temperature is indistinguishable from absolute zero.

Given that the para-/ferro-magnetic transition is driven by the balance of magnetic

(potential) and thermal (kinetic) energy and comes about due to the alignment of
neighbouring magnetic moments, we can predict the probability p that a given flip

moment will flip at any given time by considering the ratio of the two energies:
W mgn
pflip = exp(− ) ,
k BT

where W can be any value within a range given by perfect parallel and anti-parallel
mgn

alignment with the moment's neighbours. Any model of the domain structure of a
ferromagnet based on this statistical approach is known as an Ising model, named after
Ernst Ising, who first suggested this probabilistic procedure which lends itself to
computer modelling. Alternatively, the magnetic energy can be calculated from the
quantum-mechanical exchange integral of overlapping electron clouds of adjacent
atoms, which again can be balanced with the thermal energy in the same way to
produce alignment probabilities. This modelling approach is known as the Heisenberg
model.

Ferromagnetism and conduction electrons

As in the case of
paramagnetism in metals,
conduction electrons and
their band structure have
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21/05/2019 Collective magnetism: Ferromagnetism et al. :: Condensed Matter Physics :: Rudi Winter's web space
their band structure have
implications for
ferromagnetic materials,
too. The Figure contrasts
(a simplified schematic
version of) the band
structure of copper and
nickel, two elements
adjacent in the periodic
table. Nickel has one
electron less than copper;
therefore the Fermi level
(i.e. the highest occupied state in the limit of zero temperature) is a little lower in
nickel.

As we know from the solution of the Schrödinger equation of the hydrogen atom, the
energy of an electron is determined by the main quantum number, n. However, the
interaction between the different electrons in atoms further down the periodic table
results in shifts and splits of energy levels according to their orbital angular momentum
quantum number, l - indicated by letters like s,p,d,f... in the label of the respective state.
How this comes about is covered in the section on the Central Field Approximation in
the Atoms and Molecules lecture. As a result of these shifts, the 4s and the 3d states are
at a comparable energy.

In copper, all the 3d states are occupied and the 4s band is half full at T → 0. In nickel,
there is one less atom, and as a result the Fermi level cuts through both the 4s and the
3d band, so the notional occupancy of 3d104s0 isn't quite correct. At this point, the
magnetic exchange interaction becomes important: the 3d band splits into two sub-
bands with opposing magnetic moment (and therefore magnetic quantum number, m).
One orientation is energetically more favourable than the other, resulting in the parallel
aligned sub-band being entirely below the Fermi level while the anti-parallel sub-band
is only partially occupied. This produces as strong permanent magnetic moment from
the excess magnetic moments.

Next...

Having considered the various forms of magnetism in materials, we can compare

electric and magnetic properties and emphasise the many similarities.

Dr Rudolf Winter
Department of Physics, Aberystwyth University, Penglais, Aberystwyth SY23 3BZ, Wales
Adran Ffiseg, Prifysgol Aberystwyth, Penglais, Aberystwyth SY23 3BZ, Cymru
ruw@aber.ac.uk

Blame me, not my employer etc. etc.

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