2003/10/24 by Jiping Huang, J. P. Huang, Lei Gao +3 · 1 citation
Chemistry · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Dielectric materials and actuators #Electrostatics and Colloid Interactions #Vibration Control and Rheological Fluids #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreve.69.036605
published as Phys. Rev. E 69, 036605 (2004) · 18 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2003/10/24 · openalex publication_date 2004/03/23 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
When a composite of nonlinear particles suspended in a host medium is subjected to a sinusoidal electric field, the electrical response in the composite will generally consist of alternating current (ac) fields at frequencies of higher-order harmonics. The situation becomes more interesting when the suspended particles are graded, with a spatial variation in the dielectric properties. The local electric field inside the graded particles can be calculated by the differential effective dipole approximation, which agrees very well with a first-principles approach. In this work, a nonlinear differential effective dipole approximation and a perturbation expansion method have been employed to investigate the effect of gradation on the nonlinear ac responses of these composites. The results showed that the fundamental and third-harmonic ac responses are sensitive to the dielectric-constant and/or nonlinear-susceptibility gradation profiles within the particles. Thus, by measuring the ac responses of the graded composites, it is possible to perform a real-time monitoring of the fabrication process of the gradation profiles within the graded particles.