All Problems

Electric Capacitance, Energy of an Electric Field

Problem 3.103

The space between the plates of a parallel-plate capacitor is filled consecutively with two dielectric layers 1 and 2 having the thicknesses d1d_{1} and d2d_{2} and the permittivities ε1\varepsilon_{1} and ε2\varepsilon_{2} respectively The area of each plate is equal to S.S . Find: (a) the capacitance of the capacitor; (b) the density σ\sigma^{\prime} of the bound charges on the boundary plane if the voltage across the capacitor equals VV and the electric field is directed from layer 1 to layer 2 .

Reveal Answer
(a) C=ε0Sd1/ε1+d2/ε2C=\frac{\varepsilon_{0} S}{d_{1} / \varepsilon_{1}+d_{2} / \varepsilon_{2}}; (b) σ=ε0Vε1ε2ε1d2+ε2d1\sigma^{\prime}=\varepsilon_{0} V \frac{\varepsilon_{1}-\varepsilon_{2}}{\varepsilon_{1} d_{2}+\varepsilon_{2} d_{1}}.