Question

Why electron drifts in oscillating electric field?

Answer 1

The electron is initially at rest, x0 = v0 = 0, so we have x(t) = (a0/ω) t − (a0/ω2) (sinωt). The result is interesting: the second term oscillates and corresponds to the jiggling motion of the electron that we predicted. The first term, however, corresponds to motion with uniform velocity, so in addition to the jiggling motion the electron starts to drift away.


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