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THEORY OF DIELECTRIC BREAKDOWN*

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Abstract

A NUMBER of years ago, a general theory of electronic motion in metals was developed by F. Bloch1 and others, using the methods of quantum mechanics. Many of the results of this general theory can be applied to non-metals, and we shall see that in ionic crystals a quantitative calculation of the mean free path is possible, which is more than was achieved for metals where one was restricted to an estimate of the order of magnitude. I should like to demonstrate this electron theory of solids by applying it to dielectric breakdown in solids, for which a quantitative understanding has been reached in recent years2.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. H. H. Wills Physical Laboratory, University of Bristol,

    H. FRÖHLICH

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  1. H. FRÖHLICH
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FRÖHLICH, H. THEORY OF DIELECTRIC BREAKDOWN*. Nature 151, 339–340 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/151339a0

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