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Question

On what factors does the extent of polarization depend?


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Solution

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: P=np

Here, P is the dipole moment; n is the number of atoms per unit volume, 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: U=PECosθ
  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.

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