The action of a non-uniform electric field upon lossy dielectric systems-ponderomotive force on a dielectric sphere in the field of a point charge

Abstract

The use of the Maxwell stress tensor method is shown to calculate forces and torques acting in non-homogeneous dielectric systems under the influence of non-uniform electric fields in the case of lossy dielectrics without confining the treatment to the dipole approximation, as usually made. The method is applied to the particular case of a lossy dielectric sphere subject to the field of a point charge and an analytical solution is obtained. The effects of the usual restrictive assumptions are pointed out and the dependence of force upon the electric properties of materials is shown.