The ease with which the charge distribution in a molecule can be distorted by an external electrical field is called the?
1 Answer
Apr 4, 2018
The polarizability.
The polarizability is how easily a charge density can acquire an induced dipole from an external perturbation.
The perturbation would have to be from an electric field, as we expect charge-charge interaction to cause distortion of charge density.
If the electric field is aligned along the direction of the principal polarizability axis, the polarizability is given by:
#vecmu = alphavecE#
#[(mu_x),(mu_y),(mu_z)] = [(alpha_(x x), alpha_(xy), alpha_(xz)),(alpha_(xy), alpha_(yy), alpha_(yz)),(alpha_(xz), alpha_(yz), alpha_(zz))][(E_x),(E_y),(E_z)]# where
#vecmu# is the electric dipole moment and#vecE# is the electric field.
