Local Field and Clausius - Mosotti

Equation
• "Particles", i.e. atoms or molecules in a liquid or solid are
basking in electrical fields - the external field that we
apply from the outside is not necessarily all they "see" in
terms of fields.
– First, of course, there is a tremendous electrical field
inside any atom.
– Second, we have fields between atoms, quite evident
for ionic crystals, but also possible for other cases of
bonding.
– All these fields average to zero –
macroscopically
– What is microscopic view?
• Here, we are looking the effect of external
field on atoms and molecules.
• what an atom "sees" as local electrical field
or the local field Eloc to be the field felt by
one particle (mostly an atom) of the
material.
• we may express Eloc as a superposition of
the external field Eex and some field Emat
introduced by the surrounding material.
• Eloc = Eex  +  Emat
Internal/ local field:
When dielectric material is placed in the external
electric field, it is polarized creating electric
dipoles. Each dipole sets electric field in the
vicinity. Hence the net electric field at any point
within the dielectric material is given by:
The sum of external field and the field due to
all dipoles surrounding that point. This net
field is called “internal or local field or Lorentz
field”
 Lorentz model.
• Decompose the total field into four components.

Emat

1st component ‘Enear’ : due to atoms or ions inside sphere.

2nd component ‘EL’ : due to cut out part ‘sphere’ ( Lorentz)
3rd component ‘EP’ : due to surface of the material, area charge,
macroscopic polarization.
4th component ‘Eext’: External electric field
Eloc = Eex + Epol + EL + Enear
 How large are those fields?
• Field for standard geometry (material) in a capacitor is defined as (standard
Problem in Electrostatics)
E  =  N P /εo
• Where N is called Depolarization Factor (pure number)

Shape Axis N 
Sphere any 1/3
Thin slab normal 1
Thin slab in plane 0
Cylinder Longitudinal 0
Cylinder Transverse ½

Hence
• 4th component Eext
• 3rd component Ep  =  – P/ 0 (for ‘thin slab’, -ve sign shows
direction)
• 2nd component EL = P/3 0 (for ‘sphere’)
• 1st component Enear = 0 for isotropic materials (cubic), which is easy
to imagine.
• Hence
Eloc  =  Eext   –  P /0   +  P /3o +0

• If E0 = Eext   –  P /0 , is the homogeneous field averaged over the

whole volume of the homogeneous material. (macroscopic
approach)
Then Local field finally becomes; Lorentz Relation
Eloc  =  E0  +  P /3o
Internal/ local field------
Let us consider a dipole with charges +q and –q
separated by a small distance dx. The dipole
moment is given by: μ = qdx
Now consider a point P at a distance r from the
centre of dipole.
Then the electric field for the system can be resolve
into two components.
(i) Er = 2μcosθ / 4πε0r3

(ii) The
tangential / transverse component perpendicular to the radial
component is given by

Eθ = μsinθ / 4πε0r3
 E

V(r,θ) = (1/4πε0)(μcosθ/r2) Eθ Er

μ=q.dx P

-q +q
θ

dx
Consider a dielectric material placed in external electric field of strength E
and also assuming an array of equidistant dipoles within the dielectric
material, which are aligned in the field direction as shown in the fig:
Let us find the local field at ‘X’ due to all dipoles in the
array.
The field at X due to dipole A is given by;

EXA = Er +Eθ [here r = a & θ = 00]

Er = 2μcos00 / 4πε0a3 = 2μ / 4πε0a3
& Eθ = 0
Hence EXA = μ/ 2πε0a3
(1)
(2)
(3)
 3 0    1 
  .
N   2

The last equation is known as Clausius-Mosotti formula. It is

also known as Lorentz-Lorentz equation in context of optics.

The remarkable fact is that the atomic polarizability which is

a microscopic quantity can be measured at ease by
measuring a macroscopic quantity (dielectric constant) by
using a capacitor.
Clausius-Mosotti equation in alternative
forms

N    1    r  1 
  
3 0    2    r  2 
or,
N  n 2  1 
 2  .  Lorentz-Lorentz Equation
3 0  n  2 
• If the material consists of different types of molecules
then
 r 1 1

 r  2 3 0
N
i
i i

– Where Ni is the no of molecules per unit volume and αi is the

polarizability of ith kind of molecule.

• This equation can also be written as

M  r  1 MN  N A
PM   
  r  2  3 0 3 0
Where, NA is the Avogadro number , M= molecular
weight, = density and PM = Molar polarization.