Dialectrics and Waves was first published in 1954 as a pioneering attempt to bring physicists, chemists, and electrical engineers together in a common understanding of modern materials research. The book has become a classic, widely praised for its exceptionally clear and interesting presentation. It formulates the macroscopic theory of interaction between fields and matter, in language especially suited for the discussion of electric and magnetic properties, and inquiries into the molecular interpretation of such properties.
The macroscopic and molecular treatment of its subject are developed in separate parts. Part I introduces the fundamental parameters, complex permittivity and permeability, and derives the macroscopic theory in a unified manner for the electrical and optical frequency spectrum from the field and the circuit aspect. By considering the propagation of waves in unbounded space and under increasingly stringent boundary conditions, it establishes also the principles of the various measuring techniques. Conversion formulas, nomographic charts and tables of dimensions and units allow a convenient change-over to alternative parameters and systems and facilitate rapid calculations.
Part II gives the molecular interpretation of the macroscopic phenomena. It discusses the action of induced of induced and permanent electric and magnetic moments from atoms and molecules to the condensed phases, starting with classical ideas and progressing to those of quantum mechanics and our present state of knowledge. In a final integrating sweep, the formation and behavior of mobile charge carriers are surveyed from gases to liquids and solids, and from low fields up to the destruction of dielectrics by electric breakdown.