In the SI linear-response convention , a diamagnetic contribution has negative susceptibility: the induced moment opposes the applied field. Orbital motion supplies a familiar microscopic mechanism, and closed-shell atoms can be diamagnetic even without permanent moments. Paramagnetism has positive susceptibility, with induced magnetization along the field; thermal alignment of permanent localized moments is one mechanism, while conduction-electron spin response is another.
Neither sign alone is a definition of ferromagnetic ordering. An ordinary paramagnetic phase has no spontaneous zero-field magnetization. A diamagnetic background can coexist with a larger paramagnetic contribution in the same specimen. Curie's inverse-temperature law describes an appropriate localized-moment model, not every possible paramagnet.
Undoped gallium arsenide is expected to be diamagnetic at zero temperature. Its valence band is filled and its conduction band empty, so there are no mobile conduction band electrons to give Pauli paramagnetism. The specified absence of localized magnetic moments removes a Curie law response and the usual mechanism for ferromagnetic ordering. The remaining induced orbital response is diamagnetism. This classification uses the ordinary weak-field band insulator picture; the band gap suppresses thermally generated carriers as .