EE2513: Electromagnetic Fields and Waves

Lecture 12:
Electric Fields in Material Space
Conductors and current
Ohm’s Law

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Fields in Materials
 Materials contain charged particles that respond to
applied electric and magnetic fields.
 Materials are classified according to the nature of
their response to the applied fields.

 Classification of Materials
– Conductors (metals)
– Semiconductors
– Insulators (Dielectrics)
– Magnetic materials
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 Steady Electric Current
 Electrostatics is the study of charges at rest.
 However, when considering material space we
must also consider the secondary effects due to
current induced in these materials
 Therefore, we shall also allow the charges to
move, but with a constant velocity (no time
variation).
 “steady electric current” = “direct current (DC)”

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Conductors and Conductivity

 A conductor is a material in which electrons are
free to migrate over macroscopic distances within
the material.
 Metals are good conductors because they have
many free electrons per unit volume.
 Other materials with a smaller number of free
electrons per unit volume are also conductors.
 Conductivity is a measure of the ability of the
material to conduct electricity.

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 Semiconductor
 A semiconductor is a material in which electrons
in the outermost shell are able to migrate over
macroscopic distances when a modest energy
barrier is overcome
 Semiconductors support the flow of both negative
charges (electrons) and positive charges (holes).

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Macroscopic vs Microscopic
 In our study of electromagnetics, we use
Maxwell’s equations which are written in terms of
macroscopic quantities.
 The lower limit of the classical domain is about
10-8 m = 100 angstroms. For smaller dimensions,
quantum mechanics is needed.

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 Conductor in an Electrostatic Field
 To have an electrostatic field, all charges must have
reached their equilibrium positions (i.e., they are
stationary).

 Under such static conditions, there must be zero electric

field within the conductor. (Otherwise charges would
continue to flow.)

 If the electric field in which the conductor is immersed

suddenly changes, charge flows temporarily until
equilibrium is once again reached with the electric field
inside the conductor becoming zero.

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Conductor in an Electrostatic Field

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 Conductor in an Electrostatic Field (cont’d)
 In a metallic conductor, the establishment of
equilibrium takes place in about 10-19 s – an
extraordinarily short time indeed.
 There are two important consequences to the
fact that the electrostatic field inside a metallic
conductor is zero:
1. The conductor is an equipotential body.
2. The charge on a conductor must reside entirely on its
surface.
 A corollary of the above is that the electric field
just outside the conductor must be normal to its
surface.
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Conductor in an Electrostatic Field

 Boundary Conditions on the Electric Field at the
Surface of a Metallic Conductor

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 Conductor in an Electrostatic Field (cont’d)

 The BCs given above imply that if a conductor is

placed in an externally applied electric field, then
– the field distribution is distorted so that the electric
field lines are normal to the conductor surface
– a surface charge is induced on the conductor to
support the electric field

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Applied and Induced Electric Fields

 The applied electric field (Eapp) is the field that
exists in the absence of the metallic conductor
(obstacle).
 The induced electric field (Eind) is the field that
arises from the induced surface charges.
 The total field is the sum of the applied and
induced electric fields.

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 Convection Current and Current density
 Current:

 Current Density: or

 For the filament shown

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Conduction Current
 Consider a conducting wire in which electrons are subject
to an electric field experiencing a force

 The electrons moves under electric field with a drift

velocity (not freely and colliding with other atoms) and
change in momentum is given by:

 If there are n free electrons per unit volume of material,

then the charge density is

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 Conduction Current Density
 Now putting the values

 This is point form of Ohm’s Law

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Ohm’s Law and Resistors

 Consider a conductor of
uniform cross-section:
 Let the wires and the two
exposed faces of the
“resistor” be perfect
conductor.
 In a perfect conductor:
– J is finite
– σ is infinite
– E must be zero.
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 Ohm’s Law and Resistors (continued)
 To derive Ohm’s law for resistors from Ohm’s law
at a point, we need to relate the circuit quantities
(V and I) to the field quantities (E and J)
 The electric field within the material is given by

 The current density in the wire is

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Ohm’s Law and Resistors (continued)

 Plugging into J = σE, we have

 Define the resistance of the device as

 Thus,

Ohm’s law for resistors

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 Joule’s Law
 Power P (in watts) is defined as the rate of change of
energy W (in joules) or force times velocity.
   
P   v dv E  vd   E  v vd dv
 
or P   E  Jdv Joule’s Law

 The power density wP (in watts/m3) is given by

dP   2
wp   EJ  E
dv
 For conductor of uniform cross-section dv  dS dl

Therefore P  E dl J dS  VI  I 2 R
L
S
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