Module : 1 (Chapter /1)

Contents: Dielectric Materials

• Polarization mechanism & Dielectric
constant
• Behavior of polarization under impulse
and frequency switching
• Dielectric loss
• Spontaneous polarization (ferroelectric)
• Piezoelectric effect
• Application of Dielectric materials
Why Dielectric Materials?
•Insulators: Coolants for transformers
•Energy storage and other applications in capacitors.
•Pulsed power and weapons
• Power conditioning
•Power factor correction
•Suppression and coupling
•Signal coupling & Decoupling
•Noise filters and snubbers Motor starters
• Signal processing
•Tuned circuits
•Sensing Hazards and safety
BASICS OF DIELECTRIC
MATERIALS
 section I: Basic Questions
• What is a dielectric?
• Can insulator be affected by electric field?
• Why there is any electrical effect if the
insulators are indeed insulators and do not
conduct electricity?
• Why should a field induce a dipole moment
in an atom if the atom is not a conducting
sphere?
 What is a dielectric?
1. A material that can sustain an electric field but does
not conduct electric current.
2. A nonconducting or insulating substance that resists
passage of electric current.
3. More or less a synonym for electrical insulator, a
material with a low (compared with that of a metal)
electrical conductivity.

4. Most generally, a dielectric is an insulator, a

substance that is highly resistant to flow of electric
current. Layers of such substances are commonly
inserted into capacitors to improve their performance,
and the term dielectric refers specifically to this
application.
 Can insulator be affected by
electric field?
• Till the time of Faraday people used to think; it can’t
because it does not conduct electricity.
• Faraday’s experimental observation: Capacitance of a
capacitor is increased when an insulator is placed
between the plates, the capacitance is increased by a
factor  if the insulator completely fills the space
between the plates.
  depends only on the nature of the insulating material
and is called dielectric constant
Q: What should be the dielectric constant of vacuum?
Q: Can we have a dielectric substance having dielectric
constant 0.9?
 Why there is any electrical effect if the
insulators are indeed insulators and do not
conduct electricity?
Consider a parallel plate capacitor; Where
0 A A= Area of plates,
Capacitance C d = Plate separation
d C= Capacitance
Q= Charge on plate
Charge Q  CV . V= Voltage difference

Now if we put a piece of insulating material like Lucite or glass

between the plates, we find that the capacitance is larger. That
means, the voltage is lower for the same charge.

But voltage difference is the integral of the electric filed across the
capacitor, therefore we conclude, the electric field is reduced
even though the charges on the plates remain unchanged.
 Hence C, V & E:

C=q/V (1)
C=0A/d (2)
V=V0/ (3)
E=E0 / (4)

The capacitance of a set of charged parallel plates is

increased by the insertion of a dielectric material.
• The capacitance is inversely proportional to the electric
field between the plates.
 Why should a field induce a dipole moment in an
atom if the atom is not a conducting sphere?
• Consider a single atom.
• We have a positively charged nucleus and the electron
"cloud".
• For Spherically symmetric system; center of gravity of
negative charges (electron cloud) coincides exactly with
the location of the nucleus.
• If we now apply an electrical field, the centers of charge
(+ve and –ve) will be separated. The electron cloud will
be pulled in the direction of the positive pole of the field,
the nucleus to the negative one.
 Section II: Review of Basics
• Dipoles in solid dielectrics; Polarization.
• Dipole moment of the atom.
• Polarization is dipole moment per unit
volume:
• A relation between E & P:
• Connection between the Polarization P and
the Electrical Displacement D
• Polarizability
• Relation between ‘E’, ‘P’, ‘α’ & ‘μ’
Dipoles in solid dielectrics; Polarization
The dielectric constant of solids is an interesting
material parameter only if the material is exposed to an
electric field. The effect of electrical field is
1. It induces electrical dipoles in the material and tries to
align them in the field direction.
2. It tries to align existing dipoles.
* Of course we also may have a combination of both
effects: The electrical field may change the distribution
of existing dipoles while trying to align them, and it may
generate new dipoles in addition.

The total effect of an electrical field on a dielectric

material is called the polarization of the material.
 Dipole moment of the atom
• The center of the positive and
negative charges q (= z · e) are
now separated by a distance ξ,
and we thus induced a dipole
moment  which is defined by  
 =  q · ξ  

• is a vector because ξ is a vector.

The way we define it, its tip will always   =  q · ξ
point towards the positive charge.
 Polarization is dipole moment per
unit volume
• For bulk materials - sum up all individual dipole
moments contained in the given volume of the material
and divide this sum by the volume V.
• Polarization P;
P  =  V  =  · N V 
Where  = average vector dipole moment (C-m);
NV = Number density of dipoles (per m3).

The physical dimension of the polarization thus is C/m2;

(Coulomb per square meter). i.e. the polarization has the
dimension of charge per area, and since  is a vector, P
is also a vector.
 More on polarization
• Polarization P = 0, does not mean that the material does
not contain dipole moments, but only that the vector sum
of all dipole moments is zero.
– This will always be the case if the dipole moment
vectors are randomly distributed with respect to their
directions.
– But it will also happen if there is an ordered distribution
with pairs of opposing dipole moments

• P has the dimension of C/m2, i.e. that of surface charge

density (Prove it.),
– To see this, let us consider a simple plate capacitor or
condenser with a homogeneously polarized material
inside its plates. (isotropic dielectric slab) We have the
following idealized situation:
• all dipole moments have the same direction.
• the charge density   inside a small probing volume, it is
clearly zero in the volume of the material (because there
are just as many positive as negative charges.)
• We are thus left with the surfaces, means equal and
opposite charge (surface polarization charge) on surfaces
separated by a distance ξ,
• Thus surface "volume" VS = A · ξ
• Hence P = ∑v μ / V = ∑s μ S / VS= ξ. ∑s q/ VS
= ξ. ∑s q/ (ξ. A)= ∑s q/A

• Therefore, “surface charge density is

equal to the magnitude of polarization”.
σpol=|P|=P=Nq ξ
 A relation between Electric field ‘E’ &
Polarization ‘P’:
• linear relationship between the applied field E (Low)and P,
i.e.   
P  0 E
• Where
– ε0 = permittivity constant (of vacuum)
  = dielectric susceptibility ( Material parameter”P/ ε0 E” ).
• Note that including ε0 in the relation is a convention which
is useful in the SI system, to make  dimensionless,
• P is proportional to E ( Linear relationship) for Low E.
• P is proportional to E2 or E3 (Non linear ) for High E.
Connection between the Polarization P and the
Electrical Displacement D
• Inside materials, the electrical field strength E was (and
still is) replaced by a vector D called the electrical
displacement or electrical flux density, which is defined
as 
D = ε r · ε0 · E  
Where εr = (relative) dielectric constant (DK) of the
material.
(the product εr · ε0 is called the permittivity).

* Note that in the English literature often the abbreviation  ("Kappa")

is used; in proper microelectronics slang one than talks of "low 
materials" (pronounced "low khe" as in (O)K) when on actually means
"low kappa" or "low epsilon relative".

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

• The electric displacement D in a dielectric:
caused by some external field Eex is the
displacement D0 in vacuum plus the polarization
P, i.e.
D  =  D0 + P   =   ε0 E  +  P
= ε0 E + ε0 E
= ε0 (+1) E
Therefore, εr = (+1)

Note:
1. Here we have used P =ε0 E , in which we have simply
assumed that P is parallel to E, which is only reasonable
for isotropic materials .
2. In anisotropic media, e.g. non-cubic crystals, P does not
have to be parallel to E, the scalar quantities εr and  then
are tensors.
 Atomic Polarizability
• As an effect of E, the plus charge shifted in one way and
the minus in the other.
• So the atom has now a tiny dipole moment  which
points out in the same direction as E. which is
proportional to the field E (as long as E is reasonably
weak):  =E
• The constant of proportionality ‘’ is called the atomic
polarizability.
Ques. A primitive model of an atom
consists of a point nucleus (+q)
surrounded by a uniformly charged
spherical cloud (-q) of radius a. What will
be the atomic polarizability of such an
atom?
Note: we will discuss it in Electronic
polarization.
A relation between ‘E’, ‘P’, ‘α’ & ‘μ’ :
 =E
P  =  V  =  · N V 

Hence P  = N V E  
Or   =P / N V E  
 Section II : Summary
• Dipoles in solid dielectrics;  =  q · ξ
Polarization.
• Dipole moment of the P  =  V  =  · N V 
atom. P has the dimension of C/cm2, i.e.
• Polarization is dipole
moment per unit volume: that of surface charge density .
 
• A relation between E & P: P  0 E
• Connection between the
Polarization P and the D  = ε0 (+1) E
Electrical Displacement D
 =E
• Polarizability
  =P / N V E  
 Section III : Polarization
Mechanisms
1. Types of Dielectrics
• Polar
• Non Polar
2. Electronic polarization:
3. Ionic polarization:
4. Orientation (Dipolar) polarization :
• interface polarization
 Types of Dielectrics:
• Polar dielectrics:
– Materials having permanent dipole moments
– Net dipole moment– Not zero
– Many natural molecules are examples of
systems with a finite electric dipole moment
(permanent dipole moment), since in most
types of molecules the centers of gravity of
the positive and negative charge distributions Dipole moment of
water molecule.
do not coincide.
– Ex. Water

• Non Polar dielectrics:

• Net dipole moment – zero, (in the absence of E)
• centers of gravity of the positive and negative charge
distributions coincide with each other.
• Ex. O2, N2 and Nobel gases
 Polarization Mechanisms
• Dielectric Polarization is nothing but the displacement of
charged particles under the action of the electric field to
which they are subjected.
• Therefore this displacement of the electric charges results
in the formation of electric dipole moment in atoms, ions or
molecules of the material.
– There are essentially three basic kinds of polarization
mechanisms:

1. Electronic polarization: also called atomic

polarization. An electric field will always displace the
center of charge of the electrons with respect to the
nucleus and thus induce a dipole moment. e.g noble
gases.
 Polarization Mechanism
2. Ionic polarization: In this case a (solid) material must
have some ionic character. It then automatically has
internal dipoles, but net dipole moment is zero. The
external field then induces net dipoles by slightly
displacing the ions from their rest position. Ex. simple
ionic crystals like NaCl.

3. Orientational polarization: Some time called

“Dipolar polarization”; Here the (usually liquid or
gaseous) material must have natural dipoles which can
rotate freely. In thermal equilibrium, the dipoles will be
randomly oriented and thus carry no net polarization.
The external field aligns these dipoles to some extent
and thus induces a polarization of the material. Ex. is
water, i.e. H2O in its liquid form.
 NOTE:
• Some or all of these mechanisms may act simultaneously.
• Atomic polarization, e.g., is always present in any material and thus
becomes superimposed on whatever other mechanism there might
be.
• All three mechanisms are essential for basic consideration and
calculations.

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However interface polarization is also found in materials:

Surfaces, grain boundaries, interface boundaries may be charged, i.e.

they contain dipoles which may become oriented to some degree in
an external field and thus contribute to the polarization of the material.

– There is simply no general way to calculate the charges on

interfaces nor their contribution to the total polarization of a
material. Interface polarization is therefore often omitted from the
discussion of dielectric properties.