Interaction between thed-Shells in the Transition Metals. IV. The Intrinsic Antiferromagnetic Character of Iron

The principles developed in the previous papers of this series are applied to interpret the presence of ferromagnetism in b.c.c. iron, its absence in f.c.c. iron. It is found necessary to introduce a new principle, namely that for minimum energy the $d$-shell electrons are distributed among the atoms so as to maximize the total number of pairs of electrons having like spin within the individual atoms. This principle leads to the viewpoint that, at least on a local scale, the b.c.c. iron lattice consists of the superposition of two interpenetrating simple cubic lattices of atoms having $d$-shell spins of different magnitudes and of opposite direction. The same principles lead directly to the observed saturation magnetizations of all iron base alloys.