Figure 2. Three distinct spin coupling configurations of iron atoms in ferritin.

(a) Paramagnetic state where N irons spins are magnetically independent from one another and non-interacting. (b) Clusterparamagnetic state where N iron spins are separated into n independent clusters of N/n exchange coupled spins. (c) Superparamagnetic state where all N spins are strongly coupled by the magnetic exchange interaction and behave as a single macro-spin.