PDielectric materials

Introduction:
 All dielectric materials are electrically insulators.
 In dielectrics the electrons are tightly bounded to the nucleus of the atom and there are
no free electrons.
 The examples are Mica, Glass, Porcelain, Plastic, Rubber, Wood and Wax.
 All the dielectric materials are insulators but not all insulators are dielectrics.
 Faraday first realized the importance of the dielectrics.
 He introduced the dielectric material between two parallel plate capacitor and found
that the charge on the capacitor increases.

Some important definitions:

1. Electric dipole:
The system or the arrangement in which two equal and opposite charges separated through a
distance of 'l' is called Electric dipole.
2. Electric dipole moment:
It is the product of magnitude of any one of the charges and the distance between the two
charges.

Note :
The electric dipole moment induced in the atom is proportional to the applied electric field
'E'.

3. Electric field intensity E:

It is the force experienced by the unit positive charge when it is placed at a point in the field.
Units are Newton/Coloumb
We know that the area of cross section

this can also be written as

4. Electric flux density:

The Electric flux per unit area is defined as the Electric flux density.
Electric flux density is numerically equals to the surface charge density.

We know the value of Electric field intensity E and by substituting we get,

We know that the area of cross section

5. Electric Polarization:
The Electric polarization is defined as electric dipole moment per unit volume.

6. Electric susceptibility:
It is the ratio of electric polarization to the electric field intensity.

Classification of Dielectrics:
Based on the crystal structure dielectrics are classified into two types.
1. Non-polar Dielectrics:
The dielectric material in which the center of gravity of positive charges and the center of
gravity of negative charges coincides with each other are called Non-polar Dielectrics.
  These dielectrics are polarized only when they are placed in electric field and they
possess zero dipole moment in the absence of electric field. Examples are Nitrogen,
Hydrogen, Benzene.

2. Polar Dielectrics:
The dielectric materials in which the center of gravity of positive charges does not coincide
with the center of gravity of negative charges are called Polar dielectric materials.

 They have asymmetric structure and possess permanent dipole moment. Examples are
Water, Nitrous Oxide.

Topics in dielectrics
1. Relation between Electric flux density (D), Polarization (P) and Electric field intensity
(E).
2. Types of polarization and frequency dependence of polarizability.
3. Internal field or Local field in solids and clausius Mossotti equation.
4. Ferroelectricity and Piezoelectricity.

Relation between Electric flux density (D), Polarization (P) and Electric field
intensity (E)
When a dielectric material is placed between plates of charged capacitor, the induced field is E' and
the induced charge is q'.

The resultant electric field between the plates is

we also know that that the electric field can be written as

from the above two equations we get

 We know that

So the relation between the Electric flux density D, Electric field intensity E, Electric polarization P is

Relation between dielectric constant, polarization and

susceptibility

we know that the electric flux density D

we also know that the permitivity

from the above two equations of electric fiux denisty D, we get

we know the relation between the dielectric constant and the susceptibility that

on substituting this relation, the above equation changes as

Hence the relation between polarization and susceptibility is

Types of polarization:
1. Electronic polarization:

Polarization occurs due to several microscopic mechanisms. When the specimen is placed in
DC electric field, it is polarized.
Therefore, The dipole is developed in each atom and the dipole moment is proportional to
electric field strength
 Expression for Electronic polarisability :

 Let us consider an atom of di-electric material is placed in electric field strenght E.

 Assume that charge of nucleus "ze" is surrounding by electron cloud of charge "-ze"
is uniformly distributed in atom of radius "R"
 when the field is applied due to large forced nucleus & electron cloud are shifted from
their mean positions then coulomb attractive force are created & new equilibrium
position will be obtained.

the charge density in sphere of radius R is :

The total -ve charge density. In the sphere of radius x is given by :

The coulomb force of attraction between the nucleus with charge ‘ze’ and the negative charge
density of electron cloud
in the sphere of radius x is given by

Lorentz force of attraction between the nucleus and the electron cloud is

As the system is in equilibrium both the forces are equal and opposite and hence

we know the electric dipole moment

 equating both the above equations we get

by solving this equation, we get

Hence the expression for electronic polarizability is

Additional information:
There exist a relation between electronic polarizability and dielectric constant. We know that
the polarization P is

By the definition polarization P can be written as

consider the volume V=1 then

we also know that the electric dipole moment can also written as

for N number of electrons the equation changes to

by equating both the polarization values we get

so the relation between polarization and dielectric constant is given by

2. Ionic polarization:

The ionic polarization is due to the displacement of cation and anions when an electric field is
applied to a dielectric material. The ionic polarization occurs in ionic solids.
Expression for ionic polarizability:

The electric dipole moment is given by

when an electric field is applied to the ionic crystal positive ions are displaced through
distance x1 and negative ions are displaced by the distance x2.
Therefore the total displacement between two ions x is
 Restoring force F is given by

equating both the above equations for positive ion we get,

similarly equating those two forces for negative ion we get,

The Lorentz force is give by

At equilibrium the Lorentz force is balanced by restoring force in both the ions.
by equating these forces for positive ion we get,

by equating these forces for negative ion we get,

The total distance 'x' is given by

substituting the displacements of the ions in the above equation we get,

Substituting the spring constant values of the ions in the above equation, we get,

We know the electric dipole moment induced is

 By the definition of electric dipole moment we have

Equating both the equations we get

So finally ionic polarizability is given by

3. Orientational polarization:

 Orientational polarization is the charecterstic feature of polar dielectric materials.

 In polar dielectric materials, positive and negative charges do not coincide with in the
molecule. Hence they possess permanent dipole moment.
 When polar dielectrics are subjected to electric field, dipoles tend to get oriented in
the direction of applied field. This phenomenon is called Orientational polarization.
The electric dipole moment due to orientation is

Orientational polarizability is given by

This polarization is dependent of temperature. In the case of electronic and ionic

polarization, Lorentz force is balanced by restoring force and coulomb attractive force, but
for orientational polarization dipole moment is due to thermal agitation of the molecules.
4. space charge polarization:
This polarization occurs with the accumulation of charges with opposite polarity near the
electrons.
Total polarization:
Total polarization of a dielectric material = sum of ( electronic polarization, ionic
polarization, orientational polarization, space charge polarization)
 since the space charge polarization is negligible it is almost taken as zero and
hence the total polarizability is

Frequency dependence
The effect of polarization depends on time and is given by

 Electronic polarization is very rapid action. This polarization exist when the
frequency of the applied voltage is 10^15 Hz

 Ionic polarization is slower than electronic polarization. The frequency range with
which ions can be displaced in the infrared region is equal to 10^13 Hz. If the
frequency of the applied field is 10^15 Hz the ions do not respond.
 Orientation of dipoles takes comparatively much longer time which is in the range of
micro (10^-6) to nano (10^-9) seconds. As a result, the orientational polarization
occurs below the micro wave region.

internal field or Local field in solids

Consider a dielectric material and is subjected to external field of intensity E1. The charges are
induced on the dielectric plate and the induced electric field intensity is taken as E2. Let E3 be the
field at the center of the material. E4 be the induced field due to the charges on the the spherical
cavity. The total internal field of the material is

Now consider the Electric field intensity applied E1

Substituting the Electric flux density D in E1, we get

 E2 is the Electric field intensity due to induced or polarized charges

Here the charge is induced due to the induced field so the the electric flux density D changes to the
electric polarization P

Since we have considered that the specimen is non polar dielectric material, at the center of the
specimen the dipole moment is zero and hence the electric field intensity at the center is zero due to
symmetric structure.

Now consider a circle from the center of the dielectric material. In order to calculate the electric field
intensity E4 on the surface of spherical cavity, the polarization should be calculated by resolving it
into two components, as shown in the following figure.

As we know the polarization P is the induced charge per unit area

Here the polarization changes to its component we have divide in the figure and the charge changes
to dq where the area of cross section changes to ds

Now this equation can be solved by finding out the values of the charge dq in the surface are ds. We
know the Electric field intensity E

Multiplying with the cosine angle on both the sides we get

 Now by applying all the present condition for the above equation we

Now substituting the charge dq in the above equation we get

In the above equation ds should be calculated. Consider the spherical cavity and mark the points R
and Q on the sphere of radius 'r' as shown in the above figure and drop vertical line from Q and mark
it as S. By applying the surface area of a sphere formula we get,

Now consider the right angled triangle OQS from the figure

Now substituting the values RQ and QS in the surface area we get,

Now substituting all the values in the electric field intensity on the spherical cavity E4 we get,
 Integrating with in the limits 0 to π

On solving the integration we get,

So the total electric field

Hence the Internal field obtained is

Clausius Mossotti's equation

It gives the relation between the dielectric constant and the ionic polarizability of atoms in dielectric
material. If there are N number of atoms, the dipole moment per unit volume which is called
Polarization is given by,

we know internal field

From above equations

 we know polarization from the relation between polarization and dielectric constant

from the above two equations we get,

Dielectric materials in Alternating fields:

When a dielectric is placed in an AC field or subjected to alternating field, the polarization P also
varies with time and so does the displacement changes. In general Polarization P and Electric flux
density D may lack behind in phase relation to E

By the definition of Electric flux density we have,

Ferro and piezo electric materials
Ferroelectricity :
The dielectric materials having spontaneous polarization in the absence of electric field called
"Ferroelectric materials" and the phenomenon is called "Ferroelectricity"
Examples are Barium Titanate, Potassium Di Hydrogen Phosphate, Ammonium Di Hydrogen
Phosphate, PZT, PLZT.
Properties of Ferroelectric materials:

 Ferroelectrics exhibit spontaneous polarization.

 Ferroelectrics have high value of dielectric constant (K).
 Ferroelectrics exhibit piezoelectricity and pyroelectricity. Its spontaneous polarization
vanishes above a perticular Tc called Curie temperature.
 According to Curie-Weiss law,

 The most important property of ferro electrics is that they exhibit hysteresis
behaviour.
 When a Ferroelectric material is subjected to an electric field, the graph between
polarization (P) and Electric field (E) results a closed loop called Hysteresis loop.
 As the field increases, the polarization will raise and reaches its saturation at certain
value at A.
 The polarization at A will not be changed even if the applied electric field is increased
further.
 If the field is decreased, curve follows the path A to B, at that point field is zero but
some polarization retains in that material called Residual polarization.
 If you further increase the field in reverse direction, curve follows the path B to C
where the polarization is zero and field is Coercive field.

Applications of ferroelectrics:

1. These materials are used to manufacture small size capacitors.

2. These are used in memory devices of computer.
3. Ferroelectrics exhibits pyroelectricity and hence they are used to detect the infrared
radiation. They are used in Microphones.

Piezoelectricity:
Materials which are polarized when they are subjected to mechanical stress, are called
Piezoelectric materials and the phenomenon is called Piezoelectricity.
All the ferroelectrics are piezoelectrics, but all the piezoelectrics are not ferroelectrics.
Examples are Barium Titanate exhibits both the the properties, Quartz exhibits
piezoelectricity but not ferroelectricity.
Applications:

1. These materials are widely used in transducers and strain guage. Strain guage is used
to determine strain in the sample.
2. Piezoelectric crystals are used for production of ultrasonic waves.
3. Direct piezoelectric effect is used in microphones.
4. Inverse piezoelectric effect is used in quartz watches.