Paramagnetic Relaxation in Metals

Abstract

The paramagnetic relaxation time of electron spins in a metal is calculated. Relaxation processes due to interaction with lattice vibrations, nuclear spins, other electrons, and impurity atoms are treated. It is found that the most important process of those considered is due to the interaction between electron magnetic moments and the fields caused by the translational motion of other electrons. A relaxation time of about one microsecond is calculated for this interaction at room temperature, and is approximately inversely proportional to the absolute temperature.