Orientation Polarization Spectroscopy—Toward an Atomistic Understanding of Dielectric Relaxation Processes

The theory of orientation polarization and dielectric relaxation was developed by P. Debye more than 100 years ago. It is based on approximating a molecule by a sphere having one or more dipole moments. By that the detailed intra- and intermolecular interactions are explicitly not taken into consideration. In this article, the principal limitations of the Debye approximation are discussed. Taking advantage of the molecular specificity of the infrared (IR) spectral range, measurements of the specific IR absorption of the stretching vibration υ(OH) (at 3370 cm−1) and the asymmetric υas(CH2) (at 2862.9 cm−1) are performed in dependence on the frequency and the strength of external electric fields and at varying temperature. The observed effects are interpreted as caused by orientation polarization of the OH and the adjacent CH2 moieties.