Antiferromagnetism Essay

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Antiferromagnetism: In materials that exhibit antiferromagnetism, the magnetic moments of atoms or molecules, usually related to the spins of electrons, align in a regular pattern with neighboring spins (on different sublattices) pointing in opposite directions. This is, like ferromagnetism and ferrimagnetism, a manifestation of ordered magnetism. Generally, antiferromagnetic order may exist at sufficiently low temperatures, vanishing at and above a certain temperature, theNéel temperature (named after Louis Néel, who had first identified this type of magnetic ordering).[1] Above the Néel temperature, the material is typically paramagnetic. * Antiferromagnetism materials: Antiferromagnetic materials occur commonly among transition metal compounds, especially oxides. Examples include hematite, metals such as chromium, alloys such as iron manganese (FeMn), and oxides such as nickel oxide (NiO). There are also numerous examples among high nuclearity metal clusters. Organic molecules can also exhibit antiferromagnetic coupling under rare circumstances, as seen in radicals such as 5-dehydro-m-xylylene. Antiferromagnets can couple to ferromagnets, for instance, through a mechanism known as exchange bias, in which the ferromagnetic film is either grown upon the antiferromagnet or annealed in an aligning magnetic field, causing the surface atoms of the ferromagnet to align with the surface atoms of the antiferromagnet. This provides the ability to "pin" the orientation of a ferromagneticfilm, which provides one of the main uses in so-called spin valves, which are the basis of magnetic sensors including modern hard drive read heads. The temperature at or above which an antiferromagnetic layer loses its ability to "pin" the magnetization direction of an adjacent ferromagnetic layer is called the blocking temperature of that layer and is usually lower than the
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