Insulators and Capacitors (3.

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Insulators and Capacitors

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 3.1 Polarization of dielectrics – Storing electric energy

 Response of a dielectric to applied electric field-

 The application of an electric field to a dielectric creates a volume polarization

and a net surface charge per unit area that is numerically equivalent to the
volume polarization.
 A perfect insulator with zero DC conductivity has absolutely no free electrons
and no mobile ions.
 Ionic materials can conduct electricity by the diffusion of ions.
 Fast-ion conductor materials can have significant room temperature ionic
conductivity.
 For most practical dielectric materials, ionic conductivity at room temperature is
negligible.
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  Response of a dielectric to applied electric field-

 Even though a dielectric may have no free electrons, it still contains plenty of
electric charge.
 An electric field pushes negative charges in one direction and positive charges in the
opposite direction.
 The dielectric polarizes, producing a net electric dipole moment per unit volume
called polarization P.
 The unit for polarization is C/𝑚2 .
 It is a vector quantity, defined by convention as pointing from negative to positive
charge.

Figure: Polarization of dielectric 4

 Response of a dielectric to applied electric field-

Figure: Empty capacitor

Figure: Capacitor filled with dielectric

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 Stored Electric Energy
 When electric field is applied there is no current & no
conductivity. There is however stored electric energy like
stored mechanical energy in a compressed spring.

 In DC applications ,dielectrics are used to increase the

stored energy in the capacitors.

 Small capacitors store energy in camera’s flash & release it

rapidly when needed.

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 Stored Electric Energy
• Consider a capacitor of two parallel conducting
plates
Area of plates = A ; Distance = d ; Voltage = V ;
Charge = Q

• Assuming that no dielectric between the plates:

The capacitance,C = εo A/d
The stored energy = CV2 /2

• Considering a dielectric between the plates:

Increased capacitance,
C’ =Q’ /V= εoεr A/d

 Increased Q’ is resulted because dielectric

produces an internal electric field that opposes the
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applied field.
 Stored Electric Energy

• The factor of increased capacitance charge &

stored energy is
C’/C = Q’ /Q = εr εr
εr = relative permittivity or dielectric constant

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 Dielectric Susceptibility
εr is a constant but not always constant!!!
Units of the permittivity of vacuum, εo, and the permittivity of
dielectric, ε= εo εr , are farads per meter.
But the dielectric constant εr is unitless.
It is directly related to the polarization P.
PA= Q’ – Q=C’V – CV=CV(εr – 1)
Since C= εo A/d and E=V/d, it can be written that,
P = εoE(εr -1) and
εr = 1+ P/(εoE) = 1 + 𝜒
Here, 𝜒 is called the dielectric susceptibility and it’s also
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unitless.
 Dielectric Susceptibility
Another vector quantity that is sometimes useful is the electric
displacement vector D defined by,
D = εE = εoεrE = εoE + P

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• What’s happening on the atomic level

• What are their relations with the macroscopic properties

discussed earlier

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 Microscopic mechanisms
Five major mechanisms for polarization:

• Electronic
• Ionic
• Orientational (bipolar)
• Interfacial (space charge)
• Ferroelectric

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 Electronic polarization
• Materials with pure covalent bonding

• Usually electron cloud and nucleus are symmetrically distributed

• But the atoms get distorted due to an applied electric field

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 Electronic polarization
Now if,
Separation between the center of negative charge and the nucleus= d
Total charge of the nucleus= q
Then, electric dipole moment of each atom
𝑝 = 𝑞𝑑
Further if, atoms per unit volume= N
Then, total electric dipole moment, also known as Polarization
𝑃 = 𝑁𝑝 = 𝑁𝑞𝑑

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 Electronic polarization
For moderate applied electric fields,

𝑝 ∝ 𝐸, and
𝑝 = 𝛼𝑒 𝐸

Where 𝛼𝑒 = electronic polarizability

This is the only source of polarization in pure covalent

materials like diamond
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 Electronic polarization
• An equation relating a macroscopic material
property, dielectric constant to a microscopic
property, electronic polarizability

𝑁𝛼𝑒
𝜀𝑟 = 1 + =1+𝜒
𝜀0

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 Electronic polarization

Static dielectric constants • Increase in dielctric

constants with increasing
Diamond (C) 5.9
atomic size
Silicon (Si) 12 • Larger atoms are more
polarizable and more
Germanium (Ge) 16 distorted by applied electric
fields

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 Ionic polarization
• Prominent in simple ionic material like NaCl

• Two types of distortion:

Distortion of electron clouds of each atom (similar as 1)
Separation of positively and negatively charged ions
resulting in stretching and compressing of Na-Cl bonds

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 Ionic polarization
• Additional contribution of 𝛼𝑖 to the polarizability of the
dielectric

• Will appear as an additional term in (Eq. 3.8)

• Not as significantly important as electronic polarization due to

relative displacement of entire ions

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 Orientational polarization
• Seen in molecules like 𝐻2 𝑂 who have permanent dipole
moments

• No preferred orientation in absence of an electric field

• An electric field rotates the molecules producing a preferred

orientation

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 Orientational polarization

• This leads to an additional contribution to

polarization adding a term to 3.8

• Dominant at low frequencies

• Unimportant to most solids at room

temperature

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 Interfacial polarization
• Movement of electrons and ions more than interatomic distances

• Build-up of layers of charge at internal interfaces like grain

boundaries or interphase boundaries

• Contributes largely at low frequencies

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 Ferroelectric polarization
• Ionic crystals called ferroelectrics have a spontaneous ionic
polarization in absence of an electric field due to a special
symmetry

• Ba-titanate & Pb-Zr-titanate have dielectric constants of several

thousands

• This is because of the motion of the ferroelectric domain

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3.2 DC INSULATOR, AC CONDUCTOR
3.3 RELAXATION & HEATING TEA
 DC INSULATOR
▪ Insulating means blocking the current to go from a point to another

▪ In case of DC we just need to interrupt the conducting material

between the two points with insulating materials

DC
Capacitors
INSULATOR

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 CONTD…
▪ The insulating layer between
a capacitors plates is
commonly called the
Dielectric.
▪ Due to this insulating layer,
DC current can not flow
through the capacitor as it
blocks

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What for AC?

▪ In AC circuits, capacitors serve to block direct currents but

transmit alternating currents

▪ Currents enter and leave capacitors in each cycle, and

currents must also flow in the dielectric

AC
CONDUCTOR

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AC CONDUCTOR
▪ Alternating electric field in the dielectric(ideal),

E = E0e-iɷt
▪ This will produce an alternating polarization,

P= ɛ0 (ɛr – 1) E0e-iɷt
▪ A change in surface charge density P requires charge flow of,

J = dP/dt = - iɷtɛ0 (ɛr – 1) E0e-iɷt

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▪ Imaginary conductivity indicates that current and field are π/2 out of phase

▪ But in dielectric the current leads the field by π/2

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▪ But in free electrons and ωτ>>1 , the current lags the field by π/2

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▪ There is no energy loss when the current and field are exactly π/2 out of
phase

▪ But this is the assumption of an ideal dielectric

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▪ In real dielectric the ɛr will have an imaginary part !

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RELAXATION
&
HEATING TEA

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 RELAXATION & HEATING TEA

Without applied field With applied field

This tendency
Intrinsic electric There will be a will be opposed
dipoles of tea (like tendency for the
dipoles to align by thermal
H2O dipole) will be
with the field disorder
randomly directed.

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 RELAXATION & HEATING TEA

For a given field Debye’s model of

and temperature orientation polarization
The polarization a time t
• A balance between Finite time require after application of the field
the electrical is- P= P0{1 - exp(-t/τr)}
forces and thermal
disorder • For the H20 Here, τr = Relaxation time
• An equilibrium molecules to
P0= the equilibrium
polarization will rotate into this
be determined equilibrium polarization in a given field
distribution.

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 RELAXATION & HEATING TEA

The period of an AC electric The period of an AC electric At intermediate

field > τr , that is, ωτr <<1 field < τr , that is, ωτr >>1 frequencies
• The polarization will • The dipoles will have no • Where the period and
time to rotate in response to
be able to keep up with the rapidly changing field. relaxation time are not
the changing field very different
• There will be no
• negligible phase lag. orientational polarization • Phase lags will be
• No contribution to either significant
• The dielectric constant the real or the imaginary
will have little or no component of the dielectric • The dielectric constant
imaginary component. constant. will be complex.

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 RELAXATION & HEATING TEA
For intermediate frequencies, the Debye analysis predicts-
εd(0)
εd(ω) = 1−iωτ = εd΄+ iεd̋
r
• εd(ω) as the frequency-dependent contribution to the dielectric constant
resulting from orientational polarization

• εd(0) as the DC (ω = 0) contribution,

The real part of the contribution from orientational polarization-
εd(0)
εd΄ = 1+ω2τ 2
r
The imaginary part of the contribution from orientational polarization-
εd(0)
εd̋ = 1+ω2τ 2 ωτr 38
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r
The real part of this
contribution to the dielectric
constant:
• εd΄ decreases gradually with
increasing frequency from
εd(0)→0
The imaginary part of this
contribution to the dielectric
constant:
• At very low and at very high
frequencies, εd̋ = 0
• At ωτr = 1, εd̋ is maximum
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This represents a frequency
region for which-
• The dielectric is no longer
lossless
• Some electrical energy is
dissipated as heat.
For the H20 dipoles in my tea,
microwave frequencies (about
109 Hz) are in this region of
optimum heating.
• I heat my tea in a microwave
oven.
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 RELAXATION & HEATING TEA
Sample Problem 3.2
In a strongly polar liquid like water, the low-frequency dielectric constant is dominated by orientational
polarization. In terms of the relaxation time τr , at what frequency does the imaginary part of the
dielectric constant grow to become 1% of the real part? Assume εd(0)>>1.
Solution
Given that, εd̋ = 0.01 εd΄
The imaginary part of the contribution to the dielectric constant from orientational polarization-
εd ̋ =
ε (0)
εd̋ = εd΄ ωτr [ As, the real part of the contribution εd΄ = d 2 2]
1+ω τr
0.01 εd΄ = εd΄ ωτr

ωτr=0.01
0.01
So, ω =
τr

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 Electronic & Ionic Resonance
When an electric field displaces the bound electrons of an atom, an
elastic restoring force is developed which can be proportional to the
electron displacement. So the general equation become

Inertia of electron (ma) Viscous damping force

propotional to velocity Restoring force

Here all the terms sre expressed with the electron displacement (x).
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For the bound electrons of dielectrics this restoring force (kx) is non
zero and plays a very important role.
In the absence of external force E=0 and in the limit of no damping
ɣ=0. So the equation become,

This equation is recognized as the equation for harmonic oscillator.

The mass (m) and spring constant (K) of this simple equation can
determine its resonance frequency,

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WE FOUND THAT,
THE AMPLITUDE OF THE OSCILLATION IS,

𝑘 −𝑒𝐸
IF Ѡ 0 AND ѠR THEN, X0 =
𝑚 𝑘
THE VALUE IS NEGATIVE, AS ELECTRON MOVES OPPOSITE TO THE FIELD.
AND POSITIVE WHEN Ѡ > ѠR
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• Ѡ ∞ THEN X0 0

• Ѡ 0 THEN X0 ∞

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• WHEN DAMPING FORCE IS CONSIDERED THEN,

• HERE 2 PARTS – REAL PART AND IMAGINARY PART

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Real part imaginary part

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 Sample problem 3.3
The dielectric constant of NaCl is 5.9 at low frequencies,but the effective dielectric constant at
the frequencies of visble light is only 2.25.What are the relative contributions of electronic and
ionic polarization to dc polarization?

Solution:
Basics(from previous discussion):

1) χ=ϵr−1 , where the χ term is known as the electric susceptibility of the material and ϵr is
known as relative permittivity.

2) The dielectric constant at frequencies of visible light results almost exclusively from
electronic polarization.

3)The DC susceptibility includes contribution from both electronic and ionic polarization

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 Given:

The dielectric constant of Nacl at low frequencies=5.9

The effective dielectric constant at the frequencies of visible light=2.25

The dielectric susceptibility that only comes from electronic polarization,

χ=2.25 – 1=1.25

The DC susceptibility, χ=5.9 -1=4.9 , this includes contribution from both, 1.25 from
electronic polarization and 4.9 – 1.25=3.65 from ionic polarizaton.

So we can say that the ionic contribution to DC Polarization in NaCl is nearly three times
larger (3.65 vs 1.35) compared to electronic polarization

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The Dielectric Constant

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Two parts
 Real part
 Imaginary part
Figure shows the variation with
frequency of the real and
imaginary parts of the dielectric
constant with all three
polarization
 Orientational (up to 109 Hz)
 Ionic (up to 1013 Hz)
 Electronic (up to 1015 Hz)
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Electronic, ionic and orientational polarization each
have characteristic frequency ranges in which the
imaginary component of the dielectric constant go
through a maximum

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Real part decrease with increasing frequency.

The variation of real part with frequency is different, as

electronic and ionic polarization each involve a restoring
force and a resonance, whereas orientational polarization
does not.

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 Loss tangent

The angle represents the lag angle between electric

displacement D and electric field.

At 25 ͦC and a frequency of 1 MHz, tan is about 0.0001 for

pure silica glass, 0.001 for 𝐴𝑙2 𝑂3 and 0.01 for soda-lime
glass.

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Materials with only electronic polarization generally have
less variation of dielectric constant with frequency and lower
losses.
Materials with substantial ionic polarization can have higher
dielectric constant but more variation with frequency and
higher losses.
The proper choice of dielectric is important for specific
application.
In many applications, a very low dielectric constant is
desired to minimize capacitance; polymers are the best
choice in this case.
In other applications, high capacitance is desired and a
high dielectric constant is important. 56
Dielectric Strength
The maximum electric field that a dielectric can
sustain before “dielectric breakdown” and the loss of
its insulating properties occurs.

Highly sensitive to microstructure.

Limits how much energy can be stored in a capacitor

of fixed dimensions.
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Relation between dielectric constant and
polarizability

This relation is called the Clausius-Mosotti relation.

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