Spin thermal energy

However, often the minimum in Si or Ti which is reached at first is shallow and thermal energy will allow escape into other areas on the Si or Ti surface before return to So occurs (Fig. 3, path e). This is particularly true in the Ti state which has longer lifetimes due to the spin-forbidden nature of both its radiative and non-radiative modes of return to So-The rate of the escape should depend on temperature and is determined in the simplest case by the height and shape of the wall around the minimum, similarly as in ground state reactions (concepts such as activation energy and entropy should be applicable). In cases of intermediate complexity, non-unity transmission coefficients may become important, as discussed above. Finally, in unfavorable cases, vibronic coupling between two or more states has to be considered at all times and simple concepts familiar from ground-state chemistry are not applicable. Pres-... 

The height of the energy barrier between the forward and reverse states is the product of the particle volume, V, and the anisotropy constant Kefr (which is, to some extent, a function of particle size). Superparamagnetic relaxation occurs when the thermal energy of the particles exceeds the activation energy barrier between the spin states and so allows rapid, spontaneous fluctuations between these states. The effect of these spin reversals is that the observed magnetic field is reduced or even absent. 

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