Chapter 6

6. Dielectrics and Ferroelectrics

When a voltage is applied to two parallel metal plates which are
separated by a distance, L, then charge is stored on these plates even
after the voltage has been removed.
 This ability to store an electric charge is called capacitance, C, which
is defined by:
1
where C is given in coulombs per volt, or farad.
 The capacitance depends on area, A, of the plates, the distance, L,
between the plates and on the material that may have been inserted
between the plates.

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 The experimental observations lead to
2

 Determines the magnitude of the added storage capability due to

dielectric insertion. It is called the (unitless) dielectric constant (or
occasionally the relative permittivity, ϵr).
 ϵ0 is a universal constant having the value of 8.85 x 10-12 farad per
meter (F/m), or As/Vm, and is known by the name permittivity of
empty space (or of vacuum).

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 The microscopic concept of polarization
 When a dielectric (insulator) is placed in an external field, the field (if
weak) induces a polarization that varies linearly with the field.
 The effect of the electrical field can be two fold:
1. It induces electrical dipoles in the material and tries to align them in
the field direction. In other words, with a field, dipoles come into being
that do not exist without a field.
2. It tries to align dipoles that are already present in the material. In
other words, the material contains electric dipoles even without a field.
 The process of dipole formation (or alignment of already existing
dipoles) under the influence of an external electric field on a
dielectric material is called the polarization of the material.
 Polarization: the process of creating or inducing dipoles in a
dielectric medium by an external field.
 A relation between the electrical field causing the polarization and the
amount of polarization produced (cause and effect) are connected
linearly by: 3
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 A material parameter χ ("kee") is the dielectric susceptibility.
 Within a dielectric material the electric field strength, E , is replaced
by the dielectric/electric displacement, D (also called the surface charge
density or electrical flux density, which is defined as:
4

D is supposed to give the "acting" flux inside the material.

D in a dielectric is also defined by the displacement D0 in vacuum plus
the polarization P of the material, i.e.
5
 Inserting 3 in to 5 and comparing the result with 4 we see that the
relative dielectric constant εr is simply the dielectric susceptibility χ
plus 1.
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  Mechanisms of Polarization
 There are essentially four basic kinds of polarization mechanisms:
1. Electronic/atomic polarization
2. Ionic polarization
3. Orientation polarization
4. Space charge polarization.
1. Electronic/atomic polarization

 When an electric field is applied to an atom, +vely charged nucleus

displaces in the direction of field and ẽ could in opposite direction.
This kind of displacement will produce an electric dipole with in the
atom.
 i.e., dipole moment is proportional to the magnitude of field strength
and is given by

 5 where „αe‟ is called electronic Polarizability constant 1/16/2023

 Consider a atom in an EF of intensity „E‟ since the nucleus (+Ze) and
electron cloud (-ze) of the atom have opposite charges and acted upon
by Lorentz force (FL).
 Subsequently nucleus moves in the direction of field and electron
cloud in opposite direction.
 When electron cloud and nucleus get shifted from their normal
positions, an attractive force between them is created and the
separation continuous until columbic force FC is balanced with Lorentz
force FL, Finally a new equilibriums state is established.

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 fig(2) represents displacement of nucleus and electron cloud and we
assume that the –ve charge in the cloud uniformly distributed over a
sphere of radius R and the spherical shape does not change for
convenience.
 Let σ be the charge density of the sphere

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• Force experienced by displaced nucleus of Strength E is
FL = Eq = ZeE -----(3)

• Hence electronic Polarizability is directly proportional to cube of the

radius of the atom.
• Therefore, electronic polarization is
 Occurs only at optical frequencies (1015Hz)
 Independent of temperature.
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8
2. Ionic polarization.
 The ionic polarization occurs, when atoms form molecules and it is
mainly due to a relative displacement of the atomic components of the
molecule in the presence of an electric field.
 When a Electric field is applied to the molecule, the positive ions
displaced by X1 to the negative side electric field and negative ions
displaced by X2 to the positive side of field.

 The resultant dipole moment

µ = q ( X1 + X2)
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 Restoring force constant depend upon the mass of the ion and natural
frequency and is given by

 Where „M‟ mass of anion and „m‟ is mass of cation

 This polarization occurs at frequency 1013 Hz.

 It is a slower process compared to electronic polarization.
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 It is independent of temperature.
3. Orientation Polarization
 It is also called dipolar or molecular polarization. The molecules such
as H2 , N2,O2,Cl2 ,CH4,CCl4 etc., does not carry any dipole because
centre of positive charge and centre of negative charge coincides. On
the other hand molecules like CH3Cl, H2O,HCl, ethyl acetate ( polar
molecules) carries dipoles even in the absence of electric field.
 How ever the net dipole moment is negligibly small since all the
molecular dipoles are oriented randomly when there is no electric
field.
 In the presence of the electric field these all dipoles orient themselves
in the direction of field as a result the net dipole moment becomes
huge.

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 Expression for orientation polarization

 N .orie
2
.E
Po  N . orie   N . o .E
3kT
orie
2
Where N is the number of
o  molecule per unit volume
3kT

   elec   ionic   ori  4 o R 3 

e2
w02
 1
M
 1
m
 3kT
 ori
2

 This is called Langevin – Debye equation for total Polarizability

in dielectrics.

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4). Space charge polarization
 Internal fields or local fields
 Local field or internal field in a dielectric is the space and time
average of the electric field intensity acting on a particular molecule in
the dielectric material. It is also known as a Microscopic field which
acts at an Atom
 Evaluation of internal field

 The internal field is electric field acting at an atom of solid or liquid

dielectric subjected to an external electric field.
 The internal field at the atom site „A‟ can be made up of four
components E1 ,E2, E3 & E4 Which is known as internal field or Local
field
i.e Ein = E1+E2+E3+E4

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Field E1:
E1 is the field intensity at A due to the charge density on the plates

D
E1 
From Field theory 0
When dielectric medium is polarized due to external D  0E  P
Electric field E, the displacement vector D is given by, 0E  P
E1 
By equating these two equations… 0
P
Deviding the above equation by εo E1  E  ..........(1)
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0
Field E2:
E2 is the field intensity at A due to the charge density induced on the two
sides of the dielectric due to the Polarization.
P
E2  ...........(2)
Field E3: 0
E3 is the field due to the dipoles within the cavity which depends on the
crystal structure. Here we have considered for the cubic structure so..

E3  0...........(3)

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Field E4:
1.This is due to polarized charges on the surface of the spherical cavity.
dA  2 . pq.qR
dA  2 .r sin  .rd
dA  2 .r 2 sin d
Where dA is Surface area between θ & θ+dθ…
2.The total charge present on the surface area dA is…
dq = ( normal component of polarization ) X ( surface area )

dq  p cos  dA
dq  2r p cos . sin  .d
2

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 3.The field due to this charge at A, denoted by dE4 is given by
1dq
dE4 
4 0 r 2

The field in θ = 0 direction dE4 

1 dq cos 
4 0 r 2

1
dE4  ( 2r 2 p cos . sin  .d ) cos
4 0 r 2
P
dE4  cos2  . sin  .d
2 0

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4.Thus the total field E4 due to the charges on the surface of the entire
cavity is

The internal field or Lorentz field
E4   dE4
0
can be written as



P
cos2  . sin  .d
Ei  E1  E2  E3  E4
0
2 0
p p p
Ei  ( E  )   0 

P
   . sin  .d
2

o o 3 o
cos
2 0 0

let..x  cos  dx   sin d

p
P
1
Ei  E 
  .dx 3 o
2
x
2 0 1

 P x 3 1  P 1 1
 ( )1  ( )
2 0 3 2 0 3 The above equation is also known as lorentz
P relation. So it Can be seen that local or
E4  microscopic field is larger than the
3 0 macroscopic field E by an additional factor p
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 6.3. Classius – Mosotti relation:
 Consider a dielectric material having cubic structure, and assume ionic
Polarizability & Orientational polarizability are zero..

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 6.4. Special Dielectrics
a. Piezoelectricity
 is the inducement of polarization by mechanical deformation.
 The reverse mechanism, the inducement of mechanical deformation by
polarization, also falls under this heading.
Piezoelectricity is “pressure electricity”.
 Discovered by Pierre and Jacques Curie in the 1880‟s.
 Piezoelectricity is a property of certain crystals:
 Quartz (Silicon Dioxide)
 Rochelle salt (Potassium Sodium Tartrate)
 Tourmaline (Aluminum Boron Silicate)
 Barium Titanate
 lead zirconate-titanate (PZT) Ceramic, and many others.

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b. Pyroelectricity:
 is the ability of certain materials to generate an electrical
potential when they are heated or cooled (having spontaneous
polarization)

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c). Ferroelectricity
In all pyroelectric crystals
 the dipoles are influenced by electrostatic forces when a field is
applied to opposite faces of the crystal.
 In some the dipole can actually be reversed.
 If a field opposite in sense to the dipole is applied at higher and
higher voltage, the dipoles of some crystals can reverse their direction.
 To do this, the atoms, or rather ions that form the dipole suddenly
shift position a little.
 This phenomenon of a dipole reversing in an opposing field is called
Ferroelectricity.
 Examples of Ferroelectricity
 Barium Titanate
 Rochelle salt
 potassium dihydrogen phosphate
 potassium niobate, and
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 lead zirconate-titanate (PZT)