USES OF DIELECTRICS

Almost every electrical equipment employs

dielectric materials.
Wires and cables that carry electrical current, for
example, are always coated or wrapped with some
type of insulating (dielectric) material.
Sophisticated electronic equipment like rectifiers,
semiconductors, transducers, and amplifiers
contain or are fabricated from dielectric materials.
 USES OF DIELECTRICS
The insulating material sandwiched between two
conducting plates in a capacitor is also made of some
dielectric substance.
A major use of dielectrics is in fabricating capacitors.
These have many uses including storage of energy in
the electric field between the plates.
The larger the dielectric constant, the more charge the
capacitor can store in a given field.
Liquid dielectrics are also employed as electrical
insulators. For example, in transformer oil.
 DIELECTRICS
1. The dielectrics are non-conductors of
electricity.
2. They do not posses free charges so these are
electrical insulators.
3. No current flow through them as they do not
have free electrons.
4. The electrical conductivity of a dielectric is
poor. For an ideal dielectric it is zero.
 TYPES OF DIELECTRICS
POLAR DIELECTRICS - If the centers of gravity
of the positive charges and negative charges are
separated by a finite distance, then molecule is
called a polar molecule(see Fig. 1) and dielectrics
having polar molecules are called polar dielectrics.
Examples- HCl , H2O , CHCl3 , C6H5Cl
 Non polar dielectrics
A molecule in which the centre of gravity of the +ive
and -ive charges coincide, is called non-polar
molecules. They do not posses any electric dipole
moment and have symmetrical structure. They
acquire dipole moment by induction when placed in
an electric field. Examples- H2, N2, O2, etc
 Dielectric Polarization
The phenomenon of orientation of the induced
dipoles or the permanent dipoles in an external
electric field to set the axis of the dipoles along the
field is called polarization.

The negative charges on the dipoles will face the

positively charged plate while the positive charges
will face the negative plate. The medium as a
whole remains electrically neutral.
POLARISATION of DIELECTRICS
TYPES OF POLARIZATION

The three types of dielectric polarization:

(i) Electronic polarization

(ii) Ionic polarization

(i) Orientation polarization.

 Electronic polarization
The slight relative shift of positive and negative electric
charge in opposite directions within dielectric, induced
by an external electric field is called electronic
polarization.
Electronic polarization Pe is given as
Pe = np = neE
where n is number of atoms/molecules per unit volume
Electronic polarization P is also described as amount of
dipole moment p per unit volume V of a polarized
material, i.e., P = p/V
 Ionic Polarization
Ionic polarization occurs in ionic materials. When
an electric field is applied to an ionic material then
the positive ions are displaced in the direction of
an applied field while the negative ions are
displaced in the opposite direction.

Thus ionic polarization is given as Pi = n i E

where i is constant of proportionality known as
ionic polarizability constant.
 Orientational Polarisation
If the molecules of the material have permanent
diploes, which can rotate freely. In the absence of
electric field the dipoles will be randomly oriented
in the materials and thus carry no net polarization.
The external field aligns these dipoles to some
extent and thus induces a polarization of the
material, called dipolar or orientational
polarization
 Total Polarisation
The dielectric polarisation is considered as
the sum of three contributions.
P = Pe + Pi + Po
Where

Pe is electronic polarisation
Pi is ionic polarisation
Po is oriantational polarisation
 Dielectric constant
The dielectric constant (K) of a material is
the ratio of its permittivity to the
permittivity of vacuum o

K = /o = Cd /Co =Vo / Vd = Eo/ E

It is independent of the size and shape of

capacitor and is different for different
materials.
 Three Electric Vectors E, P &D
(i) Electric Field Intensity (E)
The electric field intensity at any point in an electric
field is defined as the force experienced per unit
infinitesimally small positive charge (q0). If F is the
force on small test charge q0 then,
F
E Lim
qo 0
q o

Electric field intensity can also be expressed as

q
E 0

A 0
 Electric Polarization Vector (P)
Electric polarization (P) is defined as the
electric dipole moment per unit volume.
The electric polarization of the dielectric is
P = p = qp/A
Polarization also defined as induced surface
charge density at faces of the dielectric
perpendicular to the direction of applied electric
field.
Simply we say that polarization vector P, is
equal to the bound charge per unit area
 Electric Displacement Vector (D)

Displacement vector D is the free charge per unit

area or equal to the surface density of free
charges, i.e.,

D = q/A = free
 Relation between three electric vectors E, P &D
Let us consider the polarization of a Eo

+q -qo +qo -qo

dielectric slab placed between the

plates of parallel plate capacitor as
+ E = E o - Ep

shown in Fig.
free - the surface charge density of
free charge
p - surface charge density of +free -
p +p -free

bound charges.

The electric field strengths due to E and E
free p
0
0
p
0

free and p are given by

The net electric field within the dielectric is
given by

But surface charge density p is equal to

polarization P, i.e., p = P

Therefore above equation becomes

free
EP
0
 The quantity (0E+ P) is called electric
displacement vector D and expressed as

D free 0 E P = q/A
The above relation can be written as

D 0E P
Which expresses the relation between three
electric vectors E, P & D.
 Gausss law in Dielectrics
The surface integral of displacement vector over
a closed surface is equal to the net free charge
enclosed with in surface i.e.

Consider a parallel plate capacitor filled with a

dielectric of permittivity carrying a fixed charge +q
and q to provide a uniform external electric field.
The function of the electric field is to separate the
centre of the positive charge of the dielectric slightly
from the centre of the negative charge.
 Gausss law in Dielectrics
The applied electric field induced positive and
negative charge in the dielectric, in such a way
that the electric field set up by them opposes the
external electric field.
As the dielectric as a whole remains electrically
neutral, the positive induced surface charge must
be equal to the negative induced surface charge.

Let E0 and be the electric field in the absence and

the presence of the dielectric between the plates
respectively.
 Gausss law in Dielectrics
If no dielectric is present, Gausss law for
a closed surface given

If the dielectric is present, then

net charge enclosed by
Gaussian surface is q q`, q` is
induced charge due a
polarization
 Gausss law in Dielectrics
so now Gausss law

But we have,

Using (1), we get

Comparing (3) and (5), we get

 Gausss law in Dielectrics
Or induced charge

Obviously induced charge q` is always less in magnitude

than the free charge q and is equal to zero if no dielectric
is present. From (6) q
q0 q 0
K
Substituting this in (2), the Gausss law in dielectric takes
the form.
This is Gausss law for
dielectrics.
In other words, the surface
integral of displacement vector
D over a closed surface is
equal to the free charge
enclosed within the surface.
 ENERGY STORED IN AN ELECTRIC FIELD

Consider a dielectric slab of length L and area of cross

section A . The electric field E applied to the dielectric slab
causes a change in dipole moment.
If q is the magnitude of charge and
dL is the small displacement caused
by the electric field, then the change
in the dipole moment is given by

dp = q.dL (1)
The force acting on the charge is qE. The work done by this
force for displacement dL is
dW = force x displacement
= qE.dL = (q.dL).E = E.dp (2)
 ENERGY STORED IN AN ELECTRIC FIELD

This work is stored as the electrostatic energy of the dielectric

and this energy also changes the internal energy of the
molecules.
Now the induced diplole moment per unit volume is called the
the polarization P and is given by

P = p/A.L (A.L = V = volume of dielectric)

or p = PV or dp = V.dP (3)

Putting the value of dp in eqn. (2), we get

dW= E.VdP (4)

As polarization vector P is P = D - 0E and D = K0E,

therefore
P = K0E - 0E = 0(K 1)E
dP = 0(K 1)dE (5)
 ENERGY STORED IN AN ELECTRIC FIELD

Putting the value of dP in eqn. (4), we get

dW = 0(K 1)V.E.dE
Total work is W = dW = 0(K 1)V.E.dE = 0(K 1)V.E2
Work done per unit volume give the energy density U. Thus
U = W/V = 0(K 1)E2 (6)
This is energy density due to polarization.
The total energy density is given by the sum of energy
density in free space and energy density due to polarization.
Thus
U = 0E2 + 0(K 1)E2
or U = 0KE2 (7)
This is the energy stored per unit volume in the electrostatic
field. In the absence of dielectric K = 1, therefore
U = 0E2
 BEHAVIOUR OF DIELECTRICS IN
ALTERNATING FIELD

We know that a dielectric becomes polarized when placed

in an electric field. The polarization can be electronic, ionic
or orientational. Now if we change the direction of the field,
the direction of the polarization will also change. But this
change in polarization cannot occur instantaneously as
time is needed for the movement of charges or rotation of
dipoles in the direction of applied field. The average time
taken by a dipole to reorient itself in the field direction is
called relaxation time and the reciprocal of relaxation time
is called relaxation frequency. If the frequency of the
applied field is greater than the relaxation frequency, the
dipoles can not align themselves fast enough.
Let a dielectric is placed in an alternating field which
changes its direction periodically. In this field the total
polarization of dielectric depends on the ability of dipoles to
orient themselves in the direction of the field during each
alternation. The relative permittivity which is a measure of
polarization shows marked differences in behaviour at
different frequency of the alternating field.

(a) At low frequency region ( 106 Hz): At this frequency,

there is sufficient time for the dipoles to orient themselves
along the instantaneous direction of the field. In this case
there is no significant lag in polarization with alternation of
the field. Hence the permittivity of the dielectric medium is
independent of the frequency and has a same value as in a
static field.
(b) At radio frequency or microwave region (106 1011 Hz): In
this region, permanent dipoles, i.e., orientational polarization fails
to follow the field alternation due to very high frequency of the
field. Therefore, the contribution of orientational polarization
becomes zero and relative permittivity decreases considerably.
(c) At infrared frequency region (1011 1014 Hz): here the
relatively heavy positive and negative ions are not able to follow
the field alternations and thus the contribution from ionic
polarization stops. The dielectric now has only electronic
polarization.
(d) At ultraviolet frequency range: At this frequency, even
electron cloud fails to follow the field alternation and the total
polarization becomes zero. The relative permittivity now
becomes unity as for the case of vacuum.
Therefore the permittivity of the dielectric material decreases with
increase in frequency and this phenomenon is known as
anomalous dielectric dispersion
 CLAUSIUS MOSSOTTI EQUATION
This is the relation between dielectric constant and the
polarizability of atoms or molecules comprising the
dielectric. In solids and liquids the atoms are so close to
each other that appreciable interaction occurs between
them. Because of these interactions the electric field at a
given point inside the dielectric material is not equal to just
the intensity of the applied field alone, but is the sum of the
external field applied and the resultant field created by the
neighboring atoms. Therefore the effective field intensity at
any point inside the dielectric is given as
Ei = E + E (1)

E = applied electric field

E = the field created by the neighboring atoms.
For a solid dielectric E is found to be equal to E = P/30
Thus
Ei = E + P/30 (2)
Now for a linear and isotropic dielectrics electric dipole moment p
is found to be proportional to internal field Ei, i.e.,
p = Ei
here is atomic polarizability which is defined as dipole moment of
an atom per unit polarizing field.
If N is the number of atoms or molecules per unit volume of the
dielectric, then polarization (P) is given by
P = Np
By substituting the value of p in above equation we get P = NEi
As Ei = E + P/30

Therefore P = N[E + P/30] (3)

Now the relation between the displacement D and
polarization P is given as
D = 0E+P
therefore, we get 0KE = 0E+P (As D = 0KE, )
Or P = 0(K 1)E (4)
Putting eqn. (4) in eqn. (3), we get
0(K 1)E = N[E + 0(K 1)E/30]
or N[E + (K 1)E/3] = N[3E + (K 1)E]/3
Or N(3E + KE E)/3 = N(2E + KE)/3
0(K 1)E = NE(K + 2)/3
Or 0(K 1) = N(K + 2)/3

This equation is called Clausius Mossotti equation and

gives a relation between dielectric constant and atomic
polarizability.
Thanks