Guiding Center - Polarization Drift

Polarization Drift

A time-varying electric field also results in a drift given by

Obviously this drift is different from the others in that it cannot continue indefinitely. Normally an oscillatory electric field results in a polarization drift oscillating 90 degrees out of phase. Because of the mass dependence, this effect is also called the inertia drift. Normally the polarization drift can be neglected for electrons because of their relatively small mass.