Analysis of the electric field and force in an arrangement of a conducting sphere and a plane electrode with a dielectric barrier

This paper presents an analysis of the electric field and dielectrophoretic force in an arrangement consisting of an uncharged conducting sphere and a plane electrode with a dielectric barrier. The electric field is calculated by using the method of multipole images using an iterative algorithm proposed for calculating the images of the dielectric barrier of finite thickness. The calculation results show electric field intensification due to the presence of the dielectric barrier having higher permittivity, /spl epsiv//sub S/, than that of the surrounding medium, /spl epsiv//sub E/; however, if the barrier is separated from the conducting sphere by at least the sphere radius, its influence is negligible. Inside the dielectric barrier, the electric field on the axis of symmetry becomes more uniform and the average field significantly increases with decreasing its thickness. For a case where dielectric barrier is sufficiently thin, the electric field at the contact point and the force on the conducting sphere vary approximately as power functions of /spl epsiv//sub S///spl epsiv//sub E/.