Displacement Current

Capacitors and Electric Fields

In this section, we learn about how the screen flows through a capacitor when the plates are separated with an insulator. We also learn about electric fields and dipoles.

How Capacitors Work

• A capacitor has two metal plates separated by an insulator.

• Insulators have no outside electric field, so all electrons are tightly bound to the nucleus.

• When you apply an electric field on a dielectric, it creates little dipoles.

• When voltage increases in a battery attached to a capacitor, there is more positive bound charge on top and more negative bound charge at the bottom. This causes displacement current to flow through the array of dipoles.

Displacement Current vs Conduction Current

• Displacement current is different from conduction current because it only flows when voltage is changing.

• Conduction current follows V = IR while displacement current does not.

AC Basis

• If this was an AC basis, clipping would occur.

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