The ionic polarisation

The ionic crystals built up form charged particles (ions). However these are
charged particles due to their well-defined position in the lattice, neutralise
their opposite charge. Therefore crystalline material exhibits neutral behaviour.
These materials are the alkali-halids eg. NaCl, CsCl. Putting these materials
into electric field, the ions are shifted from their initial position according to the
electric field.
For modelling the ionic polarisation we use as unidimensional ionic crystal
model (Fig. 1). If the ions are shifted by x distance from their initial position

Figure 1: Harmonic oscillator model of ionic polarisation

the restoration force is

qE = βx, (1)
where β is the spring constant. Due to the displacement of ions, the dipole
moment of ion-pairs is increased by ∆mi
q2
∆mi = qx = E. (2)
β
From (2), the polariasibility of ionic polarisation can be expressed:
q2
αi = . (3)
β
Considering the ion-pair a harmonic oscillator, the spring constant can be ex-
pressed form the dynamic equation of the arrangement:
d2 x β
2
+ x = 0, (4)
dt m
where, m = ( M11 + M12 )−1 is the reduced mass of the ion-pair (M1 and M2 are
the masses of ions). From (1) the angular frequency of the oscillator is:
!
β
ω= . (5)
m
After rearrangement, the spring constant is given: β = mω 2 . Putting the result
to (3), the polarisability of ionic polarisation is
q2
αi = . (6)
mω 2

1
 Generally, the characteristic frequency of ionic polarisation is in the infrared
range.