Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering

Subject: Engineering Ceramic (MME-312)

Title: Dielectric Materials
Submitted to: Dr. Muhammad Asif Rafiq
Submitted by: Raza Ali (2018-MM-34)
Date: January 27th, 2021

University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore

 Dielectric Materials
1.0. Linear Dielectrics
1.1. Insulators and Dielectrics
 The dielectric response results from the short-range motion of charge carriers under the
influence of an externally applied electric field.
 In as much as all solids are comprised of positive and negative entities, the application of
an electric field to any solid will result in a separation of its charges. This separation of
charge is called polarization.
 In dielectrics upon the application of electric field the polarization phenomenon occur while
in insulators this phenomenon does not occur even after the application of electric field.
This is the major difference between insulators and dielectrics.
 Dielectrics are used as charge storage devices such as capacitors, power cable while
insulators are used as switches, in high voltage systems etc.
1.2. Polarization Mechanisms
 Polarization is defined as the finite displacement of bound charges of a dielectric in
response to an applied electric field, and the orientation of their molecular dipoles if the
latter exist.
 In solids, especially in ceramics, various charged entities are capable of polarization, such
as electrons, protons, cations, anions, and charged defects.
 The following mechanisms represent the most important polarization mechanisms in
ceramics.
1.2.1. Electronic Polarization
This mechanism entails the displacement of the electron cloud relative to its nucleus as shown
in figure below.

Figure 1: Electronic polarization of the atomic cloud surrounding a

nucleus, (a) At equilibrium, i.e., in the absence of an external
electric field (b) In the presence of an external electric field

1.2.2. Ionic Polarization

Ionic polarization is defined as the displacement of positive and negative ions toward the
negative and positive electrodes, respectively, as shown schematically in figure 2.

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 Figure 2: Ionic polarizability. (a) Ion positions at equilibrium; (b) Upon the
application of the electric field, the center of negative charge is no longer
coincident with the center of positive charge, i.e., polarization occurs.

1.2.3. Space Charge Polarization

 Interfacial or space charge polarization occurs when there is an accumulation of charge at
an interface between two materials or between two regions within a material because of an
external field [1].
 This can occur when there is a compound dielectric, or when there are two electrodes
connected to a dielectric material.
 This type of polarization is different from other types of polarization because instead of
affecting bound positive and negative charges i.e. ionic and covalent bonded structures,
space charge polarization also affects free charges as well.
 Space charge polarization is usually observed in amorphous or polycrystalline solids.

Figure 3: Space charge polarization happening in a

dielectric material upon the application of electric field

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 1.3. Dielectric Constant
Dielectric constant is the ability of a material to store charge in it in the presence of electric
field. It tells us how good a capacitor it (material) is.

Where ε is the dielectric constant of the material between the plates of the capacitor.
The relative dielectric constant of a material k' is defined as

Since ε is always greater than ε0, the minimum value for k' is 1. Thus k' is a dimensionless
parameter that compares the charge-storing capacity of a material to that of vacuum.

Figure 4: Functional dependence of Q on applied voltage. Slope

of curve is related to the dielectric constant of the material.

As we can see from graph in figure 4 that as we increase the dielectric constant the charge
storage also increases. This gives us the idea of miniaturization i.e. if the dielectric constant of
a smaller size material is high as compare to the dielectric constant of larger size material then
it means that we can store more charge on smaller size material as compare to larger size
material. So, by this miniaturization technique we are able to store more information on smaller
size devices with high dielectric constant as compare to larger size devices with low dielectric
constant. This is also illustrated in figure below.

Figure 5: Effect of dielectric constant on the size of devices

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 Due to this miniaturization technique requirement of energy is less so cost is also less and
now we are working on MEMS (micro electrical mechanical systems) and also on NEMS
(nano electrical mechanical systems).
 Materials having high dielectric constant are used in defence sector.
1.3.1. Changes in dielectric constant
We can vary the value of dielectric constant by following methods.
 By processing
If we change the processing conditions then grain size changes and then it plays very
important role in determining dielectric constant value.
 By doping
Dopants also affect the value of dielectric constant.
 Other factors
Defect chemistry, crystal structure and Curie temperature are among the other factors
which play critical role in determining the dielectric constant value.
1.4. Dielectric loss
The dielectric loss is a measure of the energy dissipated in the dielectric in unit time when an
electric field acts on it. This dielectric loss cause several problems which are listed below.
 This power loss represents a wastage of energy as well as attendant heating of the dielectric.
If the rate of heat generation is faster than it can be dissipated, the dielectric will heat up,
which, could lead to dielectric breakdown and other problems.
 Furthermore, as the temperature increases, the dielectric constant is liable to change as well,
which for finely tuned circuits can create severe problems.
 Another reason for minimizing dielectric loss is related to the sharpness of the tuning circuit
that would result from using the capacitor — lower losses give rise to much sharper
resonance frequencies.
 Material scientists look for higher dielectric constant because they tackle with charge
storage while electrical scientists look for low dielectric loss as they tackle with signal
transmission.
1.5. Classification of Dielectric Materials
In general, dielectrics are grouped into three classes:
Class I dielectrics include ceramics with relatively low and medium dielectric constants and
dissipation factors of less than 0.003. The low range covers k'static = 5 to 15, and the medium
k'static range is 15 to 500.
Class II dielectrics are high-permittivity ceramics based on ferroelectrics and have values of
k' between 2000 and 20,000.
Class III dielectrics contain a conductive phase that effectively reduces the thickness of the
dielectric and results in very high capacitances. Their breakdown voltages are quite low.

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2.0. Non-Linear Dielectrics
2.1. Piezoelectric Materials
Piezoelectric crystals are those that become electrically polarized or undergo a change in
polarization when subjected to a stress. This behavior is shown in figure below.

Figure 6: Polarization phenomenon in

piezoelectric material when stress is applied

2.1.1. Direct and Converse Piezoelectric Effects

In direct piezoelectric effect electric charge is created when stress is applied. Charge is created
in the form of polarization.
P = dij * ti
Where P is the polarization produced, dij is the piezoelectric coefficient and ti is the stress
applied.
Direct piezoelectric effect is applicable in auto geiser, auto ignition oven, air bag sensor,
accelerometer etc.
While in converse piezoelectric effect dimension change occur by the application of electric
field. In this case formula becomes
S=d*E
Where S is strain, d is piezoelectric coefficient and E is the applied electric field.
Converse piezoelectric effect is more applicable in automotive and aerospace industry.

Figure 7: (a) The direct and (b) the indirect piezoelectric effects: (i)
contraction; (ii) expansion. The broken lines indicate the original dimensions.

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 2.1.2. Piezoelectric Coefficient
 The piezoelectric coefficient or piezoelectric modulus, usually written d33, quantifies the
volume change when a piezoelectric material is subject to an electric field, or the
polarization on application of a stress.
 It also let us know about the strength of material. We require higher piezoelectric
coefficient so that our material is more sensitive and we get better properties. Due to high
value of piezoelectric coefficient miniaturization is also possible.
 When a piezoelectric material has a piezoelectric coefficient value of 200pCN-1 then it is
used in practical applications.
2.2. Pyroelectric
 Pyroelectric crystals are ones that are spontaneously polarizable and in which a change in
temperature produces a change in that spontaneous polarization.
 A limited number of pyroelectric crystals have the additional property that the direction of
spontaneous polarization can be reversed by application of an electric field, in which case
they are known as ferroelectrics.
 They have no significant applications.
2.3. Ferroelectrics
A ferroelectric is a spontaneously polarized material with reversible polarization. This effect is
shown in figure below.

Figure 8: Unstressed polar crystal on the left, i.e., a ferroelectric, possesses a

permanent dipole even in the unstressed state and stressed ferroelectric crystal
on the right. The applied stress changes the polarization by ΔP.

The hysteresis loop of ferroelectric materials is shown in figure 9.

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 Figure 9: Hysteresis loop of ferroelectric material

 Point B is known as the saturation polarization (Ps). This is the maximum polarization that
can be expected from the alignment of domains in a ferroelectric material, ignoring the
small levels of electronic and ionic polarizations that can continue to occur at high electric
fields.
 As we decrease the magnitude of the applied field, the overall polarization (or dielectric
displacement) decreases. However, a fraction of the domains continues to remain aligned
with the direction of the field applied (O → A → B → C). This causes the ferroelectric
material to develop a remnant polarization (Pr), shown in figure 9 at Point D.
 To remove this remnant polarization (Pr) from the ferroelectric material, we must apply an
electric field in a direction opposite to the original direction. The region between Points D
and F in figure 9 shows this effect. At Point F, we reach a randomized domain configuration
with no net polarization left in the ferroelectric material. The electric field at Point F is
known as the coercive field (Ec), which can be defined as the field required to coerce or
force all the domains back to a random configuration, causing zero net polarization in a
material that was subjected to an electric field.
 As a material scientists we require high remnant polarization or low coercive field so that
data storage is high and miniaturization is possible.
2.4. Curie temperature
 Curie temperature is that temperature above which material loses its piezoelectricity if it is
piezoelectric, ferroelectricity if it is ferroelectric and pyroelectricity if it is pyroelectric.
 When temperature rises above from Curie temperature then crystal structure changes to
cubic crystal structure.
 Cubic crystal structure is symmetric so there is no any distortion and hence all the electrical
properties are vanished.

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3.0. References
[1] Dielectric Polarization - Engineering LibreTexts last accessed 27 January, 2021 (3:20am)
 Fundamentals of Ceramics, Michel W Barsoum, The Institute of Physics, London (1997)
 Electroceramics (2nd edition), A. J. Moulson and J. M. Herbert, John Wiley & Sons Ltd,
England
(1998)
 Electronic, Magnetic and Optical Materials (2nd Edition), Pradeep Fulay and Jung-Kun Lee,
CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group (2017)

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