When a magnetic material reaches its Curie temperature, the material becomes?

When a magnetic material reaches its Curie temperature, it transitions from a ferromagnetic state to a paramagnetic state. This is because, at the Curie temperature, the thermal energy becomes sufficient to disrupt the alignment of magnetic domains within the material. In the ferromagnetic state, the magnetic moments of the atoms are aligned in the same direction, which gives rise to a net magnetic moment. Above the Curie temperature, this alignment is lost due to increased atomic vibrations and random thermal motion, causing the material to behave as paramagnetic.

In the paramagnetic state, the material does not have a net magnetization in the absence of an external magnetic field, but it will exhibit some magnetization when subjected to such a field. This behavior contrasts with diamagnetism, which is a material property where the material produces a weak magnetic field in opposition to an external field, or ferrimagnetism, which involves two unequal but opposite magnetic moments. Superparamagnetism applies to very small ferromagnetic particles that can flip their magnetic orientation under thermal fluctuations, but it is a different phenomenon from the transition that occurs at the Curie temperature. Thus, the correct answer highlights the change from ferromagnetic properties to paramagnetic behavior upon reaching the Curie