Question

On what factors does the extent of polarization depend?

Answer 1

Polarisation:

1. Polarization (also polarisation) is a property of transverse waves that specifies their geometrical orientation.
2. The oscillation direction in a transverse wave is perpendicular to the wave's motion direction.
3. It is also defined as dipole moment per unit volume.
4. Mathematically it is given as: $\mathrm{P}=\mathrm{np}$

Here, $\mathrm{P}$ is the dipole moment; $\mathrm{n}$ is the number of atoms per unit volume, $\mathrm{p}$ is the polarization.

The extent of polarization depends on:

Potential Energy:

1. In an external electric field E, the work done by the dipole is stored as the potential energy of dipole U given as: $\mathrm{U}=\mathrm{PECos\theta }$
2. Here, U is the potential energy, P is the net dipole moment, and E is the electric field.
3. From the expression, we can infer that as potential energy increases, the dipole will increase hence the polarisation will increase.

Thermal Energy:

1. If the temperature increases, there will more random orientation of the dipole, so the dipole will decrease, and hence polarisation will also decrease.