Conductors, Dielectrics, and Capacitance

Electric Current
Electric charges in motion constitute current, and the unit of current is ampere (A). Current is defined as a rate movement of charge passing a given reference point of one coulomb per second. Current is defined as the flow of positive charges even though the conduction in metal takes place through the flow of electrons

Current Density
Current density is useful in finding the current over a given region or at a point. Current Density represented by vector J, and the units are in amperes per square meter. We can determine the total current over a surface S by integrating

Current Density
In the time interval t, the element of charge moved a distance x. We have therefore moved a charge Q = vSx through a reference plane perpendicular to the direction of motion in a time increment t, and the resultant current is

In terms of current density, we find This result show very clearly that charge in motion constitutes a current. We call this type of current convection current, and J is the convection current density.
Note: convection current density is related linearly to charge density and velocity.

Energy Bands
In a crystalline solid, such as a metal or a diamond, atoms are packed closely together.
(Many more electrons are present, and many more permissible energy levels are available because of the interaction forces between adjacent atoms.)

Energies which may be possessed by electrons are grouped into broad ranges, or bands The electrons with the highest energy levels, the valence electrons, are located in the valence band. The range of electron energies higher than the valence band is the conduction band.

Metallic Conductors
If there are acceptable higher-energy levels in the valence band, or if the valence band merges smoothly into the conduction band, the the solid is a metallic conductor. In conductors, the valence band and the conduction band are basically connected, so electrons can easily move from the valence band to the conduction band.

In conductors, additional kinetic energy may be given to the valence electrons by an external field to cause electrons flow.

Insulators and Semiconductors

Unlike conductors, if a gap exists between the valence band and the conduction band and the greatest energy occupies the top level in the valence band, the solid is an insulator.
(If a relatively large amount of energy is applied, an electron can jump from the valence band to the conduction band where conduction can easily occur, and the insulator breaks down. Generally, the gap is too large, and electrons can not cross the gap into the conduction band.)

An intermediate condition occurs when the gap is very small. Small amounts of energy in the form of heat, light, or an electric field may raise the energy of the electrons to cross into the conduction band. In this case, the solid is a semiconductor.

Electric Field in Conductors

Consider a conductor with a field E. An electron having a charge Q = -e will experience a force F = -eE. In a crystalline material, the progress of the electron is impeded by continual collisions, so a constant average velocity must be attained called the drift velocity vd. The mobility of the electron in a given material is denoted as .
Note: The electron velocity is in the direction opposite the direction of E.

Current Density in Conductors

Substituting the drift velocity in the equation for current density we can obtain: The relationship between J and E for a metallic conductor is specified by the conductivity : The conductivity can be expressed in terms of charge density and the electron mobility:
Note: Conductivity is measured in siemens per meter (S/m). One siemens (1S) is the basic unit for conductance in the SI system, and is defined as one ampere per volt.

Ohms Law
The ratio of the potential difference between the two ends of a cylinder to the current entering the more positive end is recognized as the resistance R:
Resistance is measured in ohms (abbreviated as )

This expression is known as Ohms Law.

Note: To come to this conclusion, we assumed J and E are uniform, but we can define the resistance as the ratio of V to I, where V is the potential difference between two specified equipotential surfaces in the material and I is the total current crossing the more positive surface into the material.

Electrostatic Fields
Principles which apply to conductors in electrostatic fields are stated as: 1. 2. 3. The static electric field intensity inside a conductor is zero. The static electric field intensity at the surface of a conductor is everywhere directed normal to that surface. The conductor surface is an equipotential surface.

These are the desired boundary conditions for the conductor-free space boundary in electrostatics:

Method of Images
Using the method of images, we can replace any charge configuration above an infinite ground plane by an arrangement of the given configuration, its image, and no conducting plane. The idea is behind method of images is to replace the conducting surface by other imaginary charges in such a way that create the condition that tangential component of the electric field along the conducting surface is zero.

Semiconductors
In intrinsic semiconductor material, two types of current carriers are present: electrons and holes. Electrons are those from the top of the filled valence band which have received enough energy to jump to the conduction band.

The vacancies left by these electrons, or holes, represent energy states in the valence band which may move from atom to atom.
The conductivity of semiconductors is a function of both hole and electron concentrations and mobilities.
Many semiconductor properties may be described by treating the hole as a positive charge.

This is because both holes and electrons move in an electric field, and they move in opposite directions; therefore, both contribute to a component of current.

Dielectric Materials
A dielectric material can be viewed as a free-space arrangement of electric dipoles which are composed of positive and negative charges whose centers do no quite coincide. These are not fee charges. They are bound in place by atomic and molecular forces and can only shift positive slightly in response to external fields. They are called bound charges.
All dielectric have the ability to store electric energy. This storage takes place by means of a shift in the relative positions of the internal, bound positive and negative charges against the normal molecular and atomic forces.

Polarization
Polar molecules have a permanent displacement existing between the centers of gravity of the positive and negative charges, and each pair acts as a dipole.
The action of an external field will align these molecules, to some extent, in the same direction.

Nonpolar molecules do not have this dipole arrangement until after a field is applied. The negative and positive charges shift in opposite directions against their mutual attraction and produce a dipole which is aligned with the electric field.

Polarization

p is in coulomb-meters

Either type of dipole may be described by its dipole moment: p = Qd The polarization P is defined as the dipole moment per unit volume:

Q is the positive one of the two bound charges composing the dipole, and d is the vector from the negative to the positive charge.

Important Expressions
When polarized material is present we can define D in more general terms:

Using the divergence theorem we can also obtain:

Where epsilon is the permittivity, D is related to E by:

Important Expressions
The linear relationship between P and E is:
Chi is a dimensionless quantity called the electric susceptibility of the material.

The relative permittivity or the dielectric constant of the material is a dimensionless quantity:

The permittivity is related by:

Boundary Conditions Two Dielectrics

We examine the tangential components around the small closed path to obtain

The boundary conditions on the normal components are

Between Conductor and Dielectric

We know that D and E are both zero inside the conductor. Also, the tangential E and D field components must both be zero to satisfy the two equations

We can now see that the boundary conditions for the conductor-free space boundary are valid for the conductor-dielectric boundary.

Capacitance
The capacitance of the two-conductor system is defined as the ratio of the magnitude of the total charge on either conductor to the magnitude of the potential difference between conductors.

The total energy stored in a capacitor is obtained by: