Saturation (magnetic)

Seen in some magnetic materials, saturation is the state reached when an increase in applied external magnetic field H cannot increase the magnetization of the material further, so the total magnetic flux density B more or less levels off. (Though, magnetization continues to increase very slowly with the field due to paramagnetism.) Saturation is a characteristic of ferromagnetic and ferrimagnetic materials, such as iron, nickel, cobalt and their alloys. Different ferromagnetic materials have different saturation levels. Saturation is most clearly seen in the magnetization curve (also called BH curve or hysteresis curve) of a substance, as a bending to the right of the curve (see graph at right). As the H field increases, the B field approaches a maximum value asymptotically, the saturation level for the substance. Technically, above saturation, the B field continues increasing, but at the paramagnetic rate, which is several orders of magnitude smaller than the ferromagnetic rate seen below saturation. The relation between the magnetizing field H and the magnetic field B can also be expressed as the magnetic permeability: or the relative permeability , where is the vacuum permeability. The permeability of ferromagnetic materials is not constant, but depends on H. In saturable materials the relative permeability increases with H to a maximum, then as it approaches saturation inverts and decreases toward one. Different materials have different saturation levels. For example, high permeability iron alloys used in transformers reach magnetic saturation at 1.6–2.2 teslas (T), whereas ferrites saturate at 0.2–0.5 T. Some amorphous alloys saturate at 1.2–1.3 T. Mu-metal saturates at around 0.8 T. Ferromagnetic materials (like iron) are composed of microscopic regions called magnetic domains, that act like tiny permanent magnets that can change their direction of magnetization. Before an external magnetic field is applied to the material, the domains' magnetic fields are oriented in random directions, effectively cancelling each other out, so the net external magnetic field is negligibly small.