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The atoms of the insulator have tightly bound electrons which cannot readily move. Other materials—semiconductors and conductors—conduct electric current more easily. The property that distinguishes an insulator is its resistivity; insulators have higher resistivity than semiconductors or conductors. The most common examples are non-metals.
where is the length of the conductor, measured in metres [m], A is the cross-section area of the conductor measured in square metres [m 2], σ is the electrical conductivity measured in siemens per meter (S·m −1), and ρ is the electrical resistivity (also called specific electrical resistance) of the material, measured in ohm-metres (Ω·m ...
[1] [2] [3] For example, if a 1 m 3 solid cube of material has sheet contacts on two opposite faces, and the resistance between these contacts is 1 Ω, then the resistivity of the material is 1 Ω⋅m. Electrical conductivity (or specific conductance) is the reciprocal of electrical resistivity. It represents a material's ability to conduct ...
In electromagnetism, a dielectric (or dielectric medium) is an electrical insulator that can be polarised by an applied electric field.When a dielectric material is placed in an electric field, electric charges do not flow through the material as they do in an electrical conductor, because they have no loosely bound, or free, electrons that may drift through the material, but instead they ...
When undoped, these have electrical conductivity nearer to that of electrical insulators, however they can be doped (making them as useful as semiconductors). Semi-insulators find niche applications in micro-electronics, such as substrates for HEMT. An example of a common semi-insulator is gallium arsenide. [24]
The insulator surrounding the inner conductor may be solid plastic, a foam plastic, or air with spacers supporting the inner wire. The properties of the dielectric insulator determine some of the electrical properties of the cable. A common choice is a solid polyethylene (PE) insulator, used in lower-loss cables.
A topological insulator is a material whose interior behaves as an electrical insulator while its surface behaves as an electrical conductor, [3] meaning that electrons can only move along the surface of the material.
Electrical breakdown in an electric discharge showing the ribbon-like plasma filaments from a Tesla coil.. In electronics, electrical breakdown or dielectric breakdown is a process that occurs when an electrically insulating material (a dielectric), subjected to a high enough voltage, suddenly becomes a conductor and current flows through it.