Diamagnetism

Preface
Diamagnetism

• Introduction
• Key Points
• Susceptibility and Permeability
Introduction
Diamagnetism is a property of materials that causes them to weakly
repel a magnetic field. Unlike familiar magnets that attract,
diamagnetic materials have a slight opposing magnetic field when
placed in an external field. This arises from the motion of electrons
within the atoms, and is a fundamental quantum mechanical effect.
Key Points
• Materials with paired electrons:
 Diamagnetism is most evident in materials where electrons in their atoms
are all paired together. Examples include common substances like water
and diamond.
• Opposed to paramagnetism:
 This point highlights the difference between diamagnetism and another
type of magnetism called paramagnetism. Materials with unpaired
electrons exhibit paramagnetism, meaning they are actually attracted to
a magnetic field.
• Magnetic permeability < 1:
 This is a more technical point. Magnetic permeability measures how a
material responds to a magnetic field. In diamagnetic materials, this
value is less than 1 ( < 1 ), indicating they resist the influence of the
external magnetic field.
Susceptibility and Permeability

 Typical diamagnetic materials have a magnetic susceptibility that is negative and

small. For example, the silicon crystal is diamagnetic with χm = −5.2 × 10−6. The
relative permeability of diamagnetic materials is slightly less than unity. When a
diamagnetic substance such as a silicon crystal is placed in a magnetic field, the
magnetization vector M in the material is in the opposite direction to the applied field
μoH and the resulting field B within the material is less than μoH.
 Fig 1: A diamagnetic material placed in a nonuniform magnetic field experiences a force toward smaller fields

 When a diamagnetic specimen is placed in a nonuniform magnetic field, the magnetization M of

the material is in the opposite direction to B and the specimen experiences a net force toward
smaller fields, as depicted in Figure 1. A substance exhibits diamagnetism whenever the
constituent atoms in the material have closed subshells and shells. This means that each
constituent atom has no permanent magnetic moment in the absence of an applied field.
Covalent crystals and many ionic crystals are typical diamagnetic materials because the
constituent atoms have no unfilled subshells. Superconductors, as we will discuss later, are perfect
diamagnets with χm = −1 and totally expel the applied field from the material.
Thank you
Group A-1 (2209001~06)
Department:
Electronics And Communications
Engineering