All Problems

Electric Capacitance, Energy of an Electric Field

Problem 3.104

The gap between the plates of a parallel-plate capacitor is filled with isotropic dielectric whose permittivity ε\varepsilon varies linearly from ε1\varepsilon_{1} to ε2(ε2>ε1)\varepsilon_{2}\left(\varepsilon_{2}>\varepsilon_{1}\right) in the direction perpendicular to the plates. The area of each plate equals S,S, the separation between the plates is equal to dd. Find: (a) the capacitance of the capacitor; (b) the space density of the bound charges as a function of ε\varepsilon if the charge of the capacitor is qq and the field E\overrightarrow{\mathrm{E}} in it is directed toward the growing ε\varepsilon values.

Reveal Answer
(a) C=ε0(ε2ε1)S/dln(ε2/ε1)C=\varepsilon_{0}\left(\varepsilon_{2}-\varepsilon_{1}\right) S / d \ln \left(\varepsilon_{2} / \varepsilon_{1}\right) (b) ρ=q(ε2ε1)/dSε2\rho^{\prime}=-q\left(\varepsilon_{2}-\varepsilon_{1}\right) / d S \varepsilon^{2}