Orbital Magnetic Susceptibility in the Tight-Binding Approximation

Abstract

By using the general formula obtained by Hebborn and Sondheimer, the orbital magnetic susceptibility is numerically calculated in the tight-binding approximation of a single band for simple cubic, f.c.c and b.c.c structures. The susceptibility is calculated as a function of the number of electrons per atom and of the temperature. It has been found that there are small temperature variations only at low temperature except a few special cases. It has also been found that the values of the Landau-Peierls term become positive except the cases of nearly empty and nearly filled bands. From the calculated results the magnetic susceptibilities for all alkali and noble metals are estimated and compared with the observed results. The contribution due to the spin-orbit interaction to the total magnetic susceptibility for Bloch electrons is formulated.