Past exam of the physics B course of the University of Cambridge / 2016 / Paper 2 / Section B / B6 / c / Solution

Free charge is charge assigned to externally supplied or mobile carriers in a macroscopic description. Bound charge describes the net charge associated with a material's polarization density $\mathbf{P}$. Its bulk and surface densities arewhere the normal points out of the polarized material. Uniform bulk polarization density has no bulk bound charge, but it can still have surface bound charge.

The electric field is sourced by the total electric charge. Introducing the electric displacement field separates the free source in the macroscopic field equation:This does not mean that bound charges are physically absent from $\mathbf{D}$: they are represented through $\mathbf{P}$. In a linear isotropic dielectric, $\mathbf{P}={ϵ}_0{\chi }_e\mathbf{E}$ and $\mathbf{D}=ϵ\mathbf{E}$, with $ϵ={ϵ}_0(1+{\chi }_e)$.

Across a stationary ordinary dielectric interface, electrostatics gives continuity of tangential electric field, while a free sheet charge givesThe normal electric field need not be continuous. For a fully filled parallel-plate capacitor at fixed free plate charge, polarization reduces the internal electric field by ${ϵ}_r$ and increases capacitance by the same factor. If a battery instead holds the voltage fixed, extra free plate charge flows from the battery; the constraint must be stated before comparing stored energies.^[ref]