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Concept
Magnetocrystalline anisotropy
Summary
In physics, a ferromagnetic material is said to have magnetocrystalline anisotropy if it takes more energy to magnetize it in certain directions than in others. These directions are usually related to the principal axes of its crystal lattice. It is a special case of magnetic anisotropy. In other words, the excess energy required to magnetize a specimen in a particular direction over that required to magnetize it along the easy direction is called crystalline anisotropy energy.
The spin-orbit interaction is the primary source of magnetocrystalline anisotropy. It is basically the orbital motion of the electrons which couples with crystal electric field giving rise to the first order contribution to magnetocrystalline anisotropy. The second order arises due to the mutual interaction of the magnetic dipoles. This effect is weak compared to the exchange interaction and is difficult to compute from first principles, although some successful computations have been made.
Magnetocrystalline anisotropy has a great influence on industrial uses of ferromagnetic materials. Materials with high magnetic anisotropy usually have high coercivity, that is, they are hard to demagnetize. These are called "hard" ferromagnetic materials and are used to make permanent magnets. For example, the high anisotropy of rare-earth metals is mainly responsible for the strength of rare-earth magnets. During manufacture of magnets, a powerful magnetic field aligns the microcrystalline grains of the metal such that their "easy" axes of magnetization all point in the same direction, freezing a strong magnetic field into the material.
On the other hand, materials with low magnetic anisotropy usually have low coercivity, their magnetization is easy to change. These are called "soft" ferromagnets and are used to make magnetic cores for transformers and inductors. The small energy required to turn the direction of magnetization minimizes core losses, energy dissipated in the transformer core when the alternating current changes direction.
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