Introduction to dielectric measurement and some common applications

In its simplest form, a dielectric is a material that can store charge when subjected to an electric field. The electric field should penetrate the material, interact with, and rearrange charged entities within it for this to happen. If all the charges are bound as in a perfect conductor, the effect is a slight charge displacement, giving rise to an element of induced polarisation as in a capacitor. Natural materials with free and bound charges would experience charge polarisation and conduction phenomena. These occur over time scales from seconds to picoseconds and manifest over field frequencies from 1 Hz to 100 s of GHz. The complexity of the interaction is commensurate with the structure and composition of the material. The dielectric properties are a measure of such interactions and help explain a material's electrodynamics and related microscopic properties, as well as highlighting the effects of the field exposure on the material.