Fields and Materials

Abstract

This chapter is devoted to interaction of electric and magnetic fields with media. Here the basic concepts concerning atomic structure of media with classification of media by bounds and electronegativity between atoms are presented. Different types of medium polarization such as electronic, atomic, ionic, dipolar, etc. as well as mechanisms and frequencies of their occurrence are explored in this chapter. Understanding the main causes of different types of polarization and their dependence on frequency are particularly important for the studying of complex permittivity (Sect. 3.11) and plasmonic phenomena (Chap. 9). Moreover, the complex permittivity of media is considered depending on the frequency and other values. The author also explains various processes associated with the magnetization of magnetic materials and deals with constitutive relations depicting the response of medium to the applied electric field for isotropic, anisotropic, biisotropic, and bianisotropic media.