What is Magnetic susceptibility?
Magnetic susceptibility of a material is the property used for the classification of materials into Diamagnetic, Paramagnetic, and Ferromagnetic substances. The material is Diamagnetic if the value of χ is small and negative, Paramagnetic if the value of χ is small and positive and Ferromagnetic if the value is large and positive. In this section, we will learn more about these substances and how they are classified on the basis of their susceptibility.
Diamagnetism
Diamagnetic substances have a tendency to move from stronger part to the weaker part of the external magnetic field. We can also say that the diamagnetic substances get repelled by a magnet.
Diamagnetic substance in a magnetic field
When we have a diamagnetic substance placed in an external magnetic field, we see that the field lined get repelled by the material and the field inside the material is reduced. If we place this substance in a non-uniform magnetic field, it tends to move from the point of a high electric field to that of a low electric field.
Para-magnetism
Paramagnetic substances are those substances that get weakly magnetized in the presence of an external magnetic field. In the presence of an external magnetic field, these substances tend to move from a region of a weak to a strong magnetic field. In other terms, we can say that these substances tend to get weakly attracted to a permanent magnet. In a paramagnetic material, the individual atoms possess a dipole moment, which when placed in a magnetic field, interact with one another, and get spontaneously aligned in a common direction, which results in its magnetization. As per the Curie’s law, the magnetism of a paramagnetic substance is inversely proportional to the absolute temperature, until it reaches a state of saturation.
Ferromagnetism
Ferromagnetic substances are those substances that when it’s placed in an external magnetic field, get strongly magnetized. Also, they tend to move from a region of weak to the region of a strong magnetic field and get strongly attracted to a magnet. In a ferromagnetic material, the individual atoms possess a dipole moment, similar to a paramagnetic material. When placed in a magnetic field, the atoms interact with one another and get spontaneously aligned in a common direction. The direction is common over a macroscopic volume which we term as a domain. The domain has a net magnetization and each domain directs itself, which results in its strong magnetization.
