Capacitor and Dielectric

What is capacitor?

• Capacitor is an electronic device for storing charge.

• Capacitors vary in shape and size
• The basic configuration of capacitor:
– Two conductors carrying equal but opposite
charges, +q and –q, separated by distance d

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What is happening inside a capacitor?

• In the uncharged state, the charge on either one of

the conductors in the capacitor is zero.
• During the charging process, a charge Q is moved
from one conductor to the other one, giving one
conductor a charge +Q , and the other one a charge -
Q.
• A potential difference is created.
• Note that whether charged or uncharged, the net
charge on the capacitor as a whole is zero.

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Functions of capacitors

• Capacitor has the same function as battery, but with very

different way of work.
– The difference between a capacitor and a battery is that a
capacitor can dump its entire charge in a tiny fraction of a second,
where a battery would take minutes to completely discharge itself.
• Stores energy
– Q1 and Q2 in the plats yield electric field between them,
– an electric field stores energy within the space in which the electric
field exists
• The use of capacitor in connection with other electronic devices:
– Reduces voltage fluctuation in electronic power supply
– A capacitor allows pulse signals to flow
– Made up an oscillator circuit if associated with inductive component
– Filtering specific frequency
– Provide electronic time delay
– Etc.
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The way capacitor works

• Charging
– When connected to battery, Plate
attached to positive pole of battery
will loss electrons
– Plate attached to negative pole of
battery will receive electrons
– Capacitor will have the same voltage
as the battery
• Discharging
– When a bulb is hooked with the
capacitor and the battery is replaced
by wire, current will flow from one
plat of the capacitor to the other and
light the bulb until the capacitor
completely discharge.

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The way capacitor works II

Like a Water Tower

One way to visualize the action of a capacitor is to
imagine it as a water tower hooked to a pipe. A water
tower "stores" water pressure –
• when the water system pumps produce more water
than a town needs, the excess is stored in the water
tower.
• Then, at times of high demand, the excess water flows
out of the tower to keep the pressure up.
A capacitor stores electrons in the same way, and can
then release them later.

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What is capacitance?

• From experiment, we know that q is proportional to ∆V, as

follow
q = C |∆V|
• C is the constant of proportionality and called capacitance.
• Physically, capacitance is a measure of the capacity of storing
electric charge for a given potential difference ∆V.
• The SI unit of capacitance is the farad (F)
1F = 1 farad = 1 coulomb/volt

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What is capacitance? II

• 1 farad = 1 coulomb/volt means

o A 1F capacitor can store 1 coulomb of charge at 1 volt.
o 1 coulomb = 6.25 x 1018 (or 6.25 billion billion electrons).

• Thus, a 1 farad capacitor would typically be pretty

big. So you typically see capacitors measured in
1 microfarad = 10-6 F
1 picofarad = 10-12 F

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 Computing capacitance: two parallel plats - 1

• From plane Gaussian Surface, compute flux to

get qenc:
– Flux in the top-side of GS is 0; E=0 inside the plat
– Flux in left and right side of GS are 0; sides are
parallel with E
q enc
– Flux in the bottom-side of GS: φ E = ε = EA
0

ε 0φ E = ε 0 EA = q enc

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Computing Capacitance : two parallel plats - 2

• To move a charge q0 we need energy

W = q 0V = q 0 Ed
V = Ed
V = − ∫ E .dl
• Because q=C V, so

q ε 0 EA
C= =
V Ed
ε A
C= 0
d
• However, the above equation is applicable only
for parallel plats capacitor.
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Computing Capacitance : concentric shells

• Capacitance is greater
than of single sphere
• the capacitance of the
capacitor depends only
on the radii of the two
spheres and on the
permittivity of the
medium, and not on the
amount of charge
stored or the potential
difference between its
two parts

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Computing Capacitance : an isolated sphere

• An “isolated” conductor (with the second conductor placed at

infinity) also has a capacitance. In the limit where bÆ∞ , the
above equation becomes:

• Thus, the capacitance of the sphere is

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Computing Capacitance: cylindrical capacitor
• From cylindrical Gaussian surface, compute q
ε 0φ E = q
for cylindrica l GS, φ E = E 2πrl , thus
q
E=
2πrl ε 0

• Compute V from E
b b b
q dr q b
V = − ∫ E .dl = ∫ E .dr = ∫ 2πlε . = ln
a a a 0 r 2πlε 0 a

• Compute C
q 2πε 0l
C= =
V b
ln 
a
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Energy storing in a capacitor - 1

• In a capacitor:
– A charged capacitor store electric potential energy, U,
that is equal to the work, W, that is needed to charge
the capacitor.

• Work is done by an external agent in bringing +dq from the

negative plate and depositing the charge on the positive plate.

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Energy storing in an electric field - 2

• To charge a capacitor Æ we need work to

move electrons from one plat to the other.
q
dW = V .dq =   dq
C 
• Thus, total work should be done
q
q 1 q2
W = ∫0 C dq =
2 C
because q = CV then
1
W =U = CV 2

2
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Energy storing in an electric field - 3

• Energy density, u: the energy stored per

volume.
– In parallel plate capacitor, with C=ε0A/d and
V=Ed.
U = ½ C V2 = ½ (ε0A/d) (Ed)2
Since the quantity Ad represents the volume between
the plates, we can define the electric energy density as
u= ½ εoE2
– We see that, u is proportional to the square of
the electric field.

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Dielectric

• In many capacitors there is an insulating

material between the plates called dielectric.
• Function of dielectric
– Maintain the separation between the plates
– Minimize charge leakage
– By experiment it is found that dielectric can
increase C
C = keC0
• ke is dielectric constant

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Dielectric: table of ke some materials

• Note that every dielectric material has a characteristic

dielectric strength which is the maximum value of
electric field before breakdown occurs and charges
begin to flow.

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Dielectric: how can it increase C ?

Molecular point of view of a dielectric material

Orientations of polar molecules when (a) E0=0 and (b) E0 ≠ 0

• The net polarization, P, parallel to E0, thus produces

average electric field of the dipoles, Ep that is anti-
parallel to E0.

• Therefore, Ep will reduce E0

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Dielectric: how can it increase C ?

• The effect of dielectric materials is always

to decrease the electric field below what it
would otherwise be
• Since ∆V=Ed, the potential difference
decreases, by a factor of ke
∆V=∆V0/ ke
• Capacitance is changed to

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Dielectric and Gauss’s law

• Gaussian surface on a capacitor without dielectric

• Gaussian surface on a capacitor with dielectric

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Dielectric and Gauss’s law -2

• Dielectric reduces E0 by a factor ke, then

• Therefore, we can calculate Qp

• In term of surface charge density

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Dielectric and Gauss’s law -3

• Applying Qp to Gauss Law, we get

• Where ε=ε0ke is called the dielectric permittivity.

• We can also write

• Where D=keε0E is called the electric displacement

vector.

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Connecting capacitors in parallel

• Across the plates of each of the

capacitors is the potential difference V.
Thus charge stored on each is given by
the product of the potential difference
V and its capacitance
• Hence total charge Q stored is given
by

Q = Q1+ Q2 + Q3
= C1V + C2V + C3V
= V(C1 + C2 + C3)
=VxC
where C = C1 + C2 + C3

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Connecting capacitors in series -1
• When capacitors are connected in series the
potential difference V is applied across the
entire combination. The p.d. across each is a
part of V.
Thus,
V = V1 + V2 + V3

• The charge Q on the entire combination is actually stored on the

outer plates of C1 and C3. On the plates not directly connected
to the cell, equal and opposite charges are induced
• Thus each capacitor stores the same charge Q.

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Connecting capacitors in series -2

• So,

• Where

• When capacitors are connected in series the total charge

stored is less than the amount that could have been stored
on any one of them connected singly to the same cell.
• Capacitors are connected in series so as to protect the
dielectric from damage due to excess field

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