Difference between dielectric constant and dielectric function The dielectric constant is a measure of the spring constant A material with a large dielectric constant is made of "stretchy" atoms or molecules Given a parallel plate capacitor, the capacitance depends on the distance between the plates Inserting a dielectric effectively adds plates, reducing the separation
What is the difference between a dielectric and a semiconductor? $\begingroup$ For an ideal dielectric, yes you can apply any voltage you want and it will remain an insulator Of course no real material is an ideal dielectric Real dielectrics “break down” (become conductors) at high enough voltages A natural example is air breaking down which causes lightning $\endgroup$ –
What is the dielectric constant of a pure conductor? Dielectric constant is proportional to the ratio of polarization density (P) and electric field (E) which means dielectric constant is inversely proportional to electric field The Electric field (E) inside a conductor is always zero under the static situation so the dielectric constant for conductor is infinite
Breakdown voltage of a dielectric - Physics Stack Exchange Breakdowns are electron cascades There are different kinds: 1) Intrinsic breakdown of the material occurs when the electric field is sufficiently strong to ionize an atom of the dielectric (or accelerate a stray electron sufficiently to do the same), with the resultant new free electrons then being accelerated by the field to repeat the process with another atom
How can capacitance exist if a vacuum is used as a dielectric? This explanation does not use the dielectric medium But if you do have a dielectric between the plates, then you will be able to store even more charge on the plates, since, as you mention yourself, the dipoles will align with the electric field to increase the attraction of even more charges to the plates, thus increasing the capacitance In
Why arent all dielectrics transparent? - Physics Stack Exchange An amorphous, granular, or otherwise macroporous or matrix material has no reciprocal lattice -- boundary or other effects will dominate the optical properties Pure dielectric crystals will generally be transparent to photon energies lower than their bandgap $\endgroup$ –
condensed matter - What is the mechanism of dielectric saturation . . . The dielectric is a very polar, protic solvent, presumably water (few other solvents dissolve ions, polar aprotic almost never, exept ion pairs, but this is a different story) The dielectric constant (DC) of protic solvents is "produced" by orientation polarisation, this is reason for the DCs being very high compared to nonpolar substances
electrostatics - Why is capacitance increased with a dielectric rather . . . A dielectric with high permittivity $\varepsilon$ permits (requires) more polarization for a given field magnitude than a low permittivity one More polarization means more charge stored, so the high $\varepsilon$ material must hold more charge for a given field to be measured across it when used as a dielectric in a capacitor
electromagnetism - Dielectric constant or permittivity of metals . . . In other words, permittivity is a measure of how an electric field affects, and is affected by, a dielectric medium Yes, metals have infinite permittivity as they completely negate the electric field inside their bulk I e infinite resistance to setting up of field and hence infinite permittivity