Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University
College of Engineering in Wadi Addawasir
Mechanical Engineering Dept.
Chapter 3 : Magnetic materials
Electrical Materials
Prof : M I Abd ElAal
Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University
College of Engineering in Wadi Addawasir
Mechanical Engineering Dept.
Introduction
There are some curious paradoxes in the story of magnetism that make the topic of considerable interest. On the
one hand, the lodestone was one of the earliest known applications of science to industry—the compass for
shipping; and ferromagnetism is of even more crucial importance to industrial society today than it was to early
navigators. On the other hand, the origin of magnetism eluded explanation for a long time, and the theory is still
not able to account for all the experimental observations.
It is supposed that the Chinese used the compass around 2500 BC. This may not be true, but it is quite certain
that the power of lodestone to attract iron was known to Thales of Miletos in the sixth century BC. The date is
put back another two hundred years by William Gilbert (the man of science in the court of Queen Elizabeth the
First), who wrote in 1600 that ‘by good luck the smelters of iron or diggers of metal discovered magnetite as
early as 800 BC.’ There is little doubt about the technological importance of ferromagnetism today. In the
United Kingdom as much as 7 × 1011 W of electricity are generated at times; electrical power in this quantity
would be hopelessly impractical without large quantities of expertly controlled ferromagnetic materials.
Evidence for the statement that the theory is not fully understood may be obtained from any honest man who
has done some work on the theory of magnetism. Electrical Materials
Prof : M I Abd ElAal
Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University
College of Engineering in Wadi Addawasir
Mechanical Engineering Dept.
Macroscopic approach
By analogy with our treatment of dielectrics, we shall summarize here briefly the main concepts of magnetism used in
electromagnetic theory. As you know, the presence of a magnetic material will enhance the magnetic flux density. Thus the
relationship
B is the magnetic flux density
M is the magnetic valid in a vacuum, is modified to H is the magnetic field
dipole moment per Xm= μr -1
unit volume, or
simply, magnetization.
in a magnetic material. The magnetization is related to the magnetic field bythe relationship
χm is the magnetic
susceptibility
Substituting eqn (3) into eqn (2) we get
μ0 is called the permeability.
μr is called the relative permeability. Electrical Materials
Prof : M I Abd ElAal
Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University
College of Engineering in Wadi Addawasir
Mechanical Engineering Dept.
Magnetoresistance
The subject has become very popular in the last decade or so but it is not new. It has been around for a century and a half.
The effect was first observed by Lord Kelvin (William Thomson at the time) in 1857, when he found a few per cent change
in electrical resistance depending on the direction of the applied magnetic field, whether it was in the same direction or
transverse to the flow of the electrons. The effect has become known as anisotropic magnetoresistance. A qualitative
description can be based on the Lorenz force. In the presence of a magnetic field the electron flow is deflected, hence there
can be a change in scattering which leads to a changed resistance. In good metals like iron and cobalt the magnetoresistance
is indeed a small effect. The change in resistivity is of the order of 0.5 to 3%.
It was found in 1988 by Fert and Grunberg (working independently) that magnetoresistance increases
significantly in multilayer ferromagnetic thin films. They called it ‘giant magnetoresistance’, abbreviated as
GMR. It is not obvious that ‘giant’ is the right adjective to use because the resistance changed by no more than
a factor of two. On the other hand, if we think of giants we imagine them just about twice the size of homo
sapiens. So after all we can use the term with clear conscience. We should also mention here Colossal
Magnetoresistance, which can cause changes in current by a factor of several thousand. It has though an
entirely different mechanism, related to a magnetically induced metal-to-insulator phase transition. It seems
less significant at the moment because it has not been harnessed for practical applications.
Electrical Materials
Prof : M I Abd ElAal
Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University
College of Engineering in Wadi Addawasir
Mechanical Engineering Dept.
Let us now think of an explanation based on quantum mechanics. We may first ask the question of
how the band structure of magnetic materials is related to resistance. As we know (see Table 1 and
Fig. 1), magnetic elements from chromium to nickel have partially filled 3d bands whereas in
copper the 3d band is filled. If we apply a voltage to a specimen of these materials we find that the
magnetic materials have high resistivity in contrast with copper which is close to having the lowest
resistivity of all materials. The number of electrons available in the conduction band is not much
different, so what is the reason? It must be low mobility or in other words low relaxation time. In
copper when an electron bumps into the lattice or scatters for any other reason, it has nowhere to
go; well nowhere relative to an electron in, say, nickel. The scattered electron has then a temporary
resting place in the partially filled 3d band so it does not participate in conduction. Its mobility is
reduced. Interestingly this effect also applies inside a ferromagnetic material. Since the filling of
the 3d band is spin dependent, one of the spin species has a higher chance of getting scattered from
a 4s state into an empty 3d state. Because of its reduced mobility this spin will contribute less to the
total current. The dependence of resistance on spin is the phenomenon that launched the new
discipline of spin electronics or briefly, spintronics. Electrical Materials
Prof : M I Abd ElAal
Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University
College of Engineering in Wadi Addawasir
Mechanical Engineering Dept.
Fig. 1. The electron configurations of (a) boron, carbon, and nitrogen and (b) chromium,
manganese, iron, cobalt, and nickel. Electrical Materials
Prof : M I Abd ElAal
Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University
College of Engineering in Wadi Addawasir
Mechanical Engineering Dept.
Electrical Materials
Prof : M I Abd ElAal
Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University
College of Engineering in Wadi Addawasir
Mechanical Engineering Dept.
Some applications
Until the 1950s the only significant application was for electrical machines and transformers.
Modern technology brought some new applications: most notable among these being the use
of magnetism for storing information. In fact, in 1985 for the first time, the sales of magnetic
products for Information Technology in the USA exceeded those for all other technologies. In
the present section we shall briefly mention only four applications, a unique one, as isolators,
a general one, as sensors, an old one, magnetic read-heads, and an even older one, electric
motors.
Electrical Materials
Prof : M I Abd ElAal
Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University
College of Engineering in Wadi Addawasir
Mechanical Engineering Dept.
Isolators
Isolators is a device which lets an electromagnetic wave pass in one direction but heavily
attenuates it in the reverse direction. It is called an isolator. The version I am going to discuss
works at microwave frequencies and uses a ferrite rod, which is placed into a waveguide and
biased by the magnetic field of a permanent magnet. The input circularly polarized wave may
propagate unattenuated, but the reflected circularly polarized wave (which is now rotating in
the opposite direction) is absorbed. Thus, the operation of the device is based on the different
attenuations of circularly polarized waves that rotate in opposite directions.
Electrical Materials
Prof : M I Abd ElAal
Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University
College of Engineering in Wadi Addawasir
Mechanical Engineering Dept.
Sensors
Magnets can be used to sense position, force, torque, speed, rotation, acceleration, and of
course current and magnetic field. Since the advent of light and powerful neo-magnets, their
use has been rapidly expanding, as for example in anti-lock brakes and in activating airbags.
Electrical Materials
Prof : M I Abd ElAal
Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University
College of Engineering in Wadi Addawasir
Mechanical Engineering Dept.
Magnetic read-heads
Practical devices for recording sound appeared in the middle of the 1930s and their video
counterparts, which needed a much wider bandwidth, came about 20 years later. The information had
to be read by so-called read-heads, which were also suitable for writing the information upon the
tape. The revolution in read-heads came with the discovery of the giant magnetoresistance. It was so
much better than those existing at the time that they reached commercial application in less than a
decade after the discovery, earning billions of dollars for IBM. Interestingly enough their reign was
short-lived. Within a few years they were supplanted by another magnetoresistive effect based on
tunneling.
Electrical Materials
Prof : M I Abd ElAal
Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University
College of Engineering in Wadi Addawasir
Mechanical Engineering Dept.
Electric motors
This is one of the oldest applications of magnetism, the conversion of electrical into mechanical
power. Have there been any major advances? Well, our illustration of what happened to the magnetic
circuit of moving-coil meters applies just as well to electric motors. They have come down in size,
so much so that in a modern motor car there is room for as many as two dozen permanent magnet
motors, which drive practically everything that moves (apart from the car, of course).
Electrical Materials
Prof : M I Abd ElAal
Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University
College of Engineering in Wadi Addawasir
Mechanical Engineering Dept.
The evolution of the magnetic circuit of moving-coil meters reflects the progress in magnet materials
development. Coil size and magnetic field are equal in all five sketches.
Electrical Materials
Prof : M I Abd ElAal
Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University
College of Engineering in Wadi Addawasir
Mechanical Engineering Dept.
Some forty years ago, all the electric motors that we moved about the laboratory or our homes were ‘fractional
horse power’. In fact, a ½ h.p. motor was rather large and heavy. Anything greater than 1 h.p. was classed as
‘industrial’ and had a built-in fan or water cooling. Now our domestic motors are smaller, cooler, and quieter;
and where power is needed, such as in portable drills, lawnmowers, and shredders, ratings of up to 1.6 kW(i.e.
more than 2 h.p.) are quite common and reasonably portable. What has happened besides the discovery of better
magnetic alloys? The makers of motors woke up to the fact that new polymeric insulations were available that
were more effective than the brown paper soaked in transformer oil which they had been using for the previous
century. I am telling you this story because it illustrates that some improvements in technology, which the public
is hardly aware of, can have a significant impact upon how we live.
Electrical Materials
Prof : M I Abd ElAal
