Giant dielectric anisotropy via homogenization

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how homogenization of randomly oriented spheroidal dielectric particles can produce materials with extremely high dielectric anisotropy, with the anisotropy degree depending on particle shape and permittivity contrast.

Contribution

It provides explicit formulas for the anisotropy of homogenized composite materials based on spheroid shape and permittivity, showing potential for unlimited anisotropy.

Findings

Maximum anisotropy occurs with needle or disc-shaped particles.

Anisotropy scales with the permittivity contrast, proportional to  or .

Degree of anisotropy is theoretically unbounded, limited only by material permittivity values.

Abstract

A random mixture of two isotropic dielectric materials, one composed of oriented spheroidal particles of relative permittivity $\epsilon_a$ and the other composed of oriented spheroidal particles of relative permittivity $\epsilon_b$, was considered in the long wavelength regime. The permittivity dyadic of the resulting homogenized composite material (HCM) was estimated using the Bruggeman homogenization formalism. The HCM was an orthorhombic biaxial material if the symmetry axes of the two populations of spheroids were mutually perpendicular and a uniaxial material if these two axes were mutually aligned. The degree of anisotropy of the HCM, as gauged by the ratio of the eigenvalues of the HCM's permittivity dyadic, increased as the shape of the constituent particles became more eccentric. The greatest degrees of HCM anisotropy were achieved for the limiting cases wherein the constituent particles were shaped as needles or discs. In these instances explicit formulas for the HCM anisotropy were derived from the dyadic Bruggeman equation. Using these formulas it was found that the degrees of HCM anisotropy are proportional to $\sqrt{\epsilon_b}$ or $\epsilon_b$, at fixed values of volume fraction and $\epsilon_a$, for $\epsilon_b > \epsilon_a$. Thus, in principle, there is no limit to degree of anisotropy that may be attained via homogenization. In practice, the degree of anisotropy would be limited by the available value of $\epsilon_b$ (and/or $\epsilon_a$).