Dielectric relaxation with dipolar screening

The phenomenon of dipolar screening does not appear to have received any attention in the past and yet we are showing that it is capable of explaining some forms of dielectric response to which no other evident explanation exists. A theory of dipolar screening is presented and it is shown that relatively “dense” systems give complete screening so that neighbouring dipoles do not “see” one another, while in more dilute systems many dipoles fall within a screening radius R_s of any one dipole. The energetically favoured configuration is for dipoles within R_s to adopt antiparallel orientations and the entire system “seizes up” in an “antiferroelectric domain” thereby reducing the number of dipoles which can be re-oriented at finite frequencies