MAGNETIC MATERIALS

Magnetic materials are those substances which get magnetized when placed
in a magnetic field so, the substance develops magnetization which may be parallel
or anti parallel to the applied field.

Types of Magnetism

There are different types of magnetism based on the magnetic behavior of

materials in response to applied magnetic fields. The major types of magnetism are
diamagnetism, para-magnetism, ferromagnetism, anti-ferromagnetism and ferri-
magnetism.

(1)Diamagnetism:
In case of diamagnetic materials, all the electrons are paired so there is no
permanent net magnetic moment per atom. These diamagnetic materials are
slightly repelled by a magnetic field. When a diamagnetic bar is suspended freely
between two magnetic poles then the axis of the bar becomes perpendicular to the
magnetic field. The susceptibility is negative.
Eg: Most elements in the periodic table, including copper, silver, and gold are
diamagnetic in nature.
(2)Para magnetism:
The substances, when placed in a magnetic field, acquire feeble
magnetization in the direction of magnetic field are known as paramagnetic
substances. In the absence of an applied field the dipole moments are randomly
oriented; therefore the material cannot have net magnetization. When a field is
applied these moments tend to align in the direction of the field and the material
acquires a net magnetization. When a bar of paramagnetic substance is placed in a
magnetic field, it tries to concentrate the lines of force into it.

Titanium, Molybdenum, and Lithium are the examples for the paramagnetic
materials. when the bar of paramagnetic material is suspended freely between two
magnetic poles, its axis becomes parallel to magnetic field. The susceptibility is
very small and positive.
(3)Ferromagnetism:
These materials have a permanent dipole moment in the absence of external
magnetic field and have a large permanent magnetization. When a ferro magnetic
material is subjected to the influence of a magnetic field, there will be a crowding
of flux lines within the material. They are attracted by the magnets. They possess
all the properties of paramagnetic substances with much greater intensity. The
susceptibility of a ferromagnetic substances decreases steadily with temperature.
 These ferromagnetic materials become paramagnetic materials after reaching
the Curie temperature.
Eg: Fe, Co, Ni, Gd, Dy are the best examples for the ferromagnetic materials.
(4)Ferri-magnetism:

In these materials the magnetic moments in the adjacent atoms are unequal
in magnitude and anti parallel direction leads to a net magnetic moment.
Incomplete cancellation of magnetic moments in opposite direction leads to net
magnetization in the ferri-magnetic materials just like as the ferromagnetic
materials with unequal magnitudes. Ferrites are the good examples for the ferri-
magnetic materials. These materials become paramagnetic after certain
temperature called Curie temperature.

(5) Anti ferromagnetism:

In these materials the magnetic moments of atoms or molecules related to

the spins of electrons, align in a regular pattern with neighboring spins arranged in
opposite in direction so that the net magnetic moment is zero. Usually these anti-
ferromagnetism, exist relatively low temperature and vanishing above certain
temperature called Neel temperature. After Neel temperature it becomes
paramagnetic in nature. Chromium is the only element which exhibit anti-
ferromagnetism at room temperature.
Table 1 Classification of magnetic materials
Type of Magnetic Temperature Atomic/magnetic
magnetism susceptibil dependance behavior
ity
Diamagnetis Negative Temperature
m and small independent

Paramagnetis Positive Temperature

m and small independent

Ferromagneti Positive Ferromagnetic

sm and large below
the Curie
temperature
and paramagnetic
above it
Anti Positive Antiferromagnetic
ferromagneti and small below the Neel’s
sm temperature and
paramagnetic
above it
Ferrimagneti Positive Ferrimagnetic
sm and large below
the Curie
temperature
and paramagnetic
above it

Domain theory of ferromagnetism:

The concept of domains was proposed by weiss in 1907 to explain the

hysteresis properties of magnetic materials. A ferro magnetic material is divided
into number of small regions called domains. A domain is a region where the
magmetic moments are aligned in the same direction. The direction of
magnetization varies from domain to domain, hence net magnetization is zero in
the absence of external magnetic field.
 Each domain is completely magnetized and has a definite boundary. During
magnetization by external field, initially domains having magnetic moments
parallel to external field expand or increase in area, later the other domains are
rotated parallel to the field direction. When demagnetized the regular domain
arrangement is disturbed and the domain structure is different from the original
state. This creates hysteresis in the ferromagnetic substances.

When a magnet is broken into pieces, each piece will be a magnet with a
north and south pole, since domains continue to remain in broken pieces. The
magnetism is lost or decreased when the magnet is heated or roughly handled,
since the magnetic domains are disturbed and rearranged during the process.

Domains of the soft iron can be easily rotated and it can be magnetized
easily, when compared to steel, which requires larger force, hence steel has high
retentivity. When a specimen is magnetized suddenly experiences a slight change
in its length due to rearrangement of domains inside. This is called
magnetostriction.
 Hysteresis Loop

Hysteresis Loop is a plot of the magnetization (M) vs the magnetizing field

(H). We know that M increases with H up to a certain maximum values M s first
rapidly and then slowly. This corresponds to the fact that the randomly oriented
magnetic domains will be polarized more and with the increase of H.

This growth continues until all the magnetic domains are completely
polarized. Further increase of H will not have any effect and M gets saturated at
Ms. If H is decreased at this stage, naturally M decreases but the rate of decrease is
less than the previous rate of growth in any range of H. hence this part of curve
does not retrace the previous of part of curve. In fact, when H is reduced to zero, M
does not vanish; the materials retain some amount of magnetism. This residual
magnetization is called retentivity (R). if the direction of H is reversed at this stage
and increased, M will beome zero at particular value of H which is called the
coercivity (Hc). On increasing H further M becomes negative and eventually
reaches saturation in a opposite direction to the former case. Reversing H again at
this stage and increasing beyond the zero, we get a closed loop as shown in above
figure. This is called the Hysteresis loop.

The process of magnetization and demagnetization by changing H is an

irreversible process as illustrated by hysteresis loop. The area of the loop is a
measure of the energy lost during the entire process. The Hystersis curve, the
retentivity and coercivity are the characterisitics of different ferro magnetic
materials. Based on the degree of their value, the materials may be broadly
classified as soft and hard magnetic materials. The hysteresis loop is thin in soft
materials and ot is fat in hard materials.
Soft and Hard Magnetic materials

Hysteresis loops for Soft magnetic and Hard magnetic

materials
Soft magnetic materials have small hysteresis loop area and low
hysteresis loss. In these materials the domain wall movement is relatively easy.
Even for small changes in the magnetizing field (H), the magnetization (M)
changes by large amounts. The coercivity and retentivity are small hence these
materials can be easily magnetized and demagnetized. Soft magnetic materials are
used to make electromagnets. The comparison of the magnetic parameters of the
soft and hard magnetic materials are given in the below table [15].

Hard magnetic materials have large hysteresis loop area and large
hysteresis loss. In these materials the domain wall movement is difficult because of
presence of impurities and crystal imperfections and it is irreversible in nature. The
coercivity and retentivity are large hence these materials cannot be easily
magnetized and demagnetized. These materials are used to make permanent
magnets.

Ferrites

Ferrites are the ferrimagnetic materials which shows the property of electrical
insulator and magnetic conductor with large number of applications in various
fields of science. The term ferrites are derived from the Latin word “Ferrum”
which means iron. Ferri-magnetism (magnetism exist in ferrites) can be considered
as uncompensated anti-ferromagnetism.

The spinel ferrite structure can be represented as A++Fe2+++O4 , where A stands for
the divalent metal ion like Ni+2,Co+2, Zn+2 and Cd+2 etc,

Spinel compounds possess a cubic unit cell which can be regarded as built of eight
smaller cubes called octants or formula units, corresponding to the formula of
“A8B16O32”. Accordingly, the spinel unit cell contains 32 oxide ions, 64 tetrahedral
sites and 32 octahedral sites.

There are three crystal structures are there in ferrites depending upon their
arrangement of metal ions at the interstitial sites.
1.5.2 Normal Spinel

In normal ferrites, the divalent cations occupy the tetragonal (A) sites and
only trivalent cations occupy the octahedral (B) sites. The distribution of metal
cations in the normal ferrites is represented by the formula (M2+)A [Me3+]B O2-4 .
Examples of normal spinel are Zinc Ferrites Zn2+[Fe23+]O42-
Cadmium ferrites Cd2+[Fe23+]O42-

1.5.3 Inverse Spinel

In inverse ferrites, half of the trivalent ions occupy tetragonal (A) sites and
the other half of the trivalent cations occupy octahedral (B) sites and total divalent
cations randomly occupy B-sites. These ferrites are represented by the formula
(Me3+)A[M2+Me3+]BO2-4
Examples of Inverse spinels are
Magnesium Ferrites (MgFe2O4) and Cobalt ferrites (CoFe2O4)
1.5.4 Mixed Spinel

Ionic distribution in the spinel ferrites, is in intermediate between the normal

and the inverse configurations is known as mixed ferrites. The distribution in this
case is represented by the formula (M2+ δ Me3+1- δ)A[M2+1- δ Me3+1+ δ]BO2-4
Examples of having mixed cation distributions are manganese-zinc and nickel-zinc
ferrites.
Applications of ferrites
-they are used to produce low frequency ultrasonic waves by magnetostriction
method.
-ferrite rods are used in radio receivers to increase the sensitivity of receivers
-ferrites are used as cores in audio and TV transformers
-ferrityes are used in digitl computers and data processing circuits
-hard ferrites are used to make permanent magnets.