Magnetic exchange interactions principles

With increasing atomic volume, one approaches the free atom limit where Hund s first rule postulates maximum spin, so that the individual spins of the electrons in a shell are aligned parallel. More generally, Pauli s exclusion principle implies that electrons with parallel spins have different spatial wavefunctions, reduces the Coulomb repulsion and is seen as exchange interaction. When the atoms are squeezed into a solid, some of the electrons are forced into common spatial wavefunctions, with antiparallel spins and reduction of the overall magnetic moment. At surfaces and interfaces, the reduced coordination reverses this effect, and a part of the atomic moment is recovered. 

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