Simple Method for Calculating the Weak-Field Electron Diamagnetism in Cubic Lattices |
| S. Olszewski Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Kasprzaka 44/52, 01-224 Warsaw, Poland |
| Full Text PDF |
| Received: August 13, 2001; revised version November 12, 2001 |
| The idea of electron wave packets moving along closed anisotropic Fermi surfaces placed in a constant magnetic field has been applied to the calculation of the orbital magnetic moment of an individual free electron and tightly-bound s-electron in a crystal lattice. In each case the magnetic moment is obtained as a derivative of the electron energy done with respect to the strength of the magnetic field. In the next step, calculations have been extended to electron ensembles. For a free-electron ensemble a thorough calculation of the weak-field magnetic moment gives a result similar to that obtained by a well-known method developed by Landau. On the other hand, calculations done for the s-band of the tightly-bound electrons of metallic iron give an absolute value of the magnetic moment much smaller than in the free-electron case. Simultaneously, the sign of the moment is changed indicating a lowering of the iron band electron energy with magnetization. |
| DOI: 10.12693/APhysPolA.101.249 PACS numbers: 75.20.-g, 75.20.En, 76.40.+b |