*3.1. Biophysical Properties of Superparamagnetic Materials*

In this section, we introduce the notion of magnetism and present the specific advantages of superparamagnetic materials for MRI and hyperthermia treatment.

All matter exhibits magnetic properties [48–50]. However, purely diamagnetic materials made of atoms with filled electron shells exhibiting no magnetic moment must be distinguished from atoms containing unpaired electrons generating magnetism. In other words, the electronic configuration of atoms and the collective behavior of individual atomic magnetic moments in a material allows us to classify materials into different magnetic types, as summarized in Table 1.
