insulating material or a very poor conductor of electric current. When dielectrics are placed in an electric field, practically no current flows in them because, unlike metals, they have no loosely bound, or free, electrons that may drift through the material. Instead, electric polarization occurs. The positive charges within the dielectric are displaced minutely in the direction of the electric field, and the negative charges are displaced minutely in the direction opposite to the electric field. This slight separation of charge, or polarization, reduces the electric field within the dielectric.

The presence of dielectric material affects other electrical phenomena. The force between two electric charges in a dielectric medium is less than it would be in a vacuum, while the quantity of energy stored in an electric field per unit volume of a dielectric medium is greater. The capacitance of a capacitor (capacitor dielectric and piezoelectric ceramics) filled with a dielectric is greater than it would be in a vacuum. The effects of the dielectric on electrical phenomena are described on a large, or macroscopic scale by employing such concepts as dielectric constant, permittivity (qq.v.), and polarization (see electric polarization).