Curie temperature
Temperatura de Curie
- Date
- 1895 · confidence high
- Place
- Paris, France
- Credited to
- Pierre Curie
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Using powerful magnets and precision balances, Pierre Curie determines the temperature above which a ferromagnetic material loses its spontaneous magnetisation and becomes paramagnetic.
Pierre Weiss (no relation) later generalised the result in the Curie-Weiss law (1907), based on molecular field theory.
What it led to
- Curie-Weiss law of magnetism
- Design of magnetic materials for memories and permanent magnets
- Modern understanding of magnetic phase transitions