B.

Tech Physics Course NIT Jalandhar

electrostatics Lecture 4

Dr. Arvind Kumar

Physics Department
e.mail. : iitd.arvind@gmail.com

Electric field in matter:

Dielectrics: These are the insulator (which do not conduct
electricity) which are polarized in presence of Electric field . These
can be solid, liquid or gases. For example glass mica, air etc.
Lets understand how dielectric get polarized:
Normally we know that atoms are electrically neutral
So we may expect that nothing will happen to these neutral
atoms in presence of electric field .
However, atoms consist of positively charged nucleus
and negatively charged electrons.

The response of the dielectric to the E.F. depends upon the nature of
molecules of which the dielectric is made up of. There are two kinds of
molecules.

1) Polar molecules: A polar molecule is the one in which the centre

of gravity of positive charge does not coincides with the centre
of gravity of negative charge. e.g. H2O, SO2, CO etc. A polar
Molecule possess permanent dipole moment.

Note the centre of gravity of positive charge means the point where
entire +Ve charge is supposes to be concentred. Similarly the centre of
Gravity of Ve charge means the point where entire Ve charge is
Suppose to concentrated.)

(2) Non-polar molecules: Here the centre of gravity of positive

charge coincides with the centre of gravity of Ve charge. A
non-polar molecule does not posses the permanent dipole
moment.

Response of dielectric material to external electric field:

1) Response of Polar dielectric : We consider a dielectric material

which is made of the polar molecules. In the absence of the external
field these molecules will be randomly oriented and therefore the
net dipole moment per unit volume will be zero. Note that although
he individual molecule has the finite dipole moment but the average
dipole moment of the sample is zero .

However when the E.F. is applied to such dielectric then the

molecules will be oriented in the direction of the E.F. This is
because the molecules behaving as dipole will experience a
torque

p E0

This torque will align the molecule in the direction of E.F.

The degree of alignment depends
upon the strength of the applied
E.F. E0 and also on the temperature.
The degree of the alignment
increases with the strength of
applied field and decreases with
increase in the temperature of the
sample.

Effect of the E.F. on the non-polar dielectric:

We consider a non-polar dielectric . In the absence of the E.F.
these molecules do not have dipole moment. However when the
E.F. is applied to non-polar dielectric then the +Ve and Ve charges
get separated. The +Ve charges get displaced in the direction of the
field whereas the Ve charges get displaced in direction opposite to
the E.F. the a dipole moment is induced due to external field.
This kind of dipole moment which is induced due to external applied
field is known a induced dipole moment.

 Electric field due to Polarization of Dielectric:

When a dielectric is placed in the presence of the field then the
molecules of the dielectric get aligned in the direction of the
field.
This can be either due to rotation of the molecules (in case of
dielectric made of polar molecules) or due to separation of the
charges (in case of dielectric made of non-polar molecules).
Due to this alignment of molecules the positive charge of the
molecule inside the dielectric is followed
by the negative charge of the next
molecule and so on. The +Ve charge
of the molecule is cancelled by the
Ve charge of the molecule adjacent
to it. The net charge in the macroscopic
region is zero except at the surface.

There left unbalanced charge at the surface

and this lead to the polarization of the dielectric. These charges
are known as the polarization charges or bound charges.
Due to these charges there is now new field denoted by Ep.
This field acts in direction opposite to the external applied field.
So the net field is now,
E = E0 Ep

Atomic polarizability:
In presence of E.F. positively charged nucleus shift in direction
of electric field and negatively charged cloud to opposite side and these
are separated by finite distance.
We say that the atom has got the dipole moment which is proportional to
the applied E.F.
In above is atomic polarizability and p is induced dipole moment
in atom due to external E.F.
If the dielectric material has N atoms per unit volume then total
induced dipole moment is
P = Np
Here P is known as polarization.

Concept of bound charges:

Consider long string of dipoles as shown below

Head of one cancel the tail of other and we are left with two charges.
Positive on right and negative on left
These net charges at the end are known as bound charges. Bound charges
are known as polarization charges
The dipole moment of tiny chunk is
We can also write above dipole moment in terms of charge
at end of tube = qd

Charge at the end of tube is

Bound Surface charge density is,

For oblique cut,

If polarization is not uniform then there can be bound charges

inside and also on the surface
Net charge inside the volume depend upon how
much is pushed out

Gauss Law in Presence of Dielectrics

We know, bound charge densities are

E.F. due to polarization is actually the field due to above bound

charges
Now we shall find the total field i.e. the field due to polarizations
and also due to everything else which we call free charges.
Free charges can be charge of electrons or ions embedded in dielectric

Now according to Gauss Law

In above E is now total E.F.

We can write above eqn by taking divergence eon one side as

Where we write
Thus we have
In integral form we can write

Electric displacement
vector

Susceptibility, permittivity and dielectric constant

Polarization of dielectrics is proportional to the E.F.
-------------------(1)

is electric susceptibility of the material and is dimensionless

quantity.
We know for linear medium we can write electric displacement
vector using (1)

-------------------(2)

Where

Permittivity of the medium

-------------------(3)

From Eq. (3) we can define a dimensionless quantity, known as

relative permittivity of the material

---------------(4)

Local Field or Polarizing field in Dielectric:

e electric field at the site of molecule or dipole due to all sou

known as Polarizing field or local field.

ind the local filed at the site of molecule or dipole we consider

imaginary sphere of radius r such that inside the sphere
have large number of molecules. Also outside
sphere medium behave
ontinuum.

We consider that the dielectric is palced between the two plates of the
Capacitor. The local field is thus the sum
of following fields
------(1)

w we find the various fields in Eqn. (1) as follows:

know:
-----------(2)

o
--------------(3)

e field E3 is due to the molecules inside the sphere. Conside

ch molecule behaving as dipole the E.F. is written as
--------(4)

al field is obtained by summing over all molecules. For perfe

mmetric and perfectly random case E3 = 0. ------------(5)

The electric field E4 due to polarization charges is calculated as follows:

Consider a small area element
(ring shaped)on the surface of cavity.
It is written as

--------(6)
(Note: area of surface element = circumference * width. In above PQ
Is radius and QR is width)

Now the charge dq on this small area element can be written as the
normal component of Polarization multiplied by the area element.
So we write,
------(7)
The E.F. at centre A due to the above charge element in
direction = 0 is written as

---------(8)

Total E.F. at A is obtained by integrating

2 0

cos3

---------------(9)

Thus using Eq. (2), (3), (5) and (9) the local field in eq. (1) can be
written as

P P
P
EL E 0
0 0
3 0
-----------(10)
Above Eq. gives us the value of local field at the site of a molecule
due to all sources.

Clausius Mossotti Relation:

The Clausius-Mossotti relation connects the relative permittivity r
of a dielectric to the polarizability of the atoms or molecules
constituting the dielectric.
The relative permittivity is a bulk (macroscopic) property and
polarizability is a microscopic property of matter and hence the
relation bridges the gap between a directly-observable macroscopic
property with a microscopic molecular property.
The relation is given by
where 0 is the electric constant (permittivity of the vacuum)
and N is the number density (number of atoms or molecules per
volume).

Derivation:We know that the induced dipole moment in an

atom is equal to
and if there are N number of atoms
per unit volume then the polarization is written as
------(1)
Now using Eqns.
And
Eq. (1) can be written as

Which is solved further as below,

----------(2)
Also the local field is given by following definition

---------(3)

Using Eq. (3) in Eq. (2) we get,

--------(4)

Now using Eq. (4) we write following expression:

------(5)
Clausius Mossotti Relation.