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Kinetic inductance


Kinetic inductance is the manifestation of the inertial mass of mobile charge carriers in alternating electric fields as an equivalent series inductance. Kinetic inductance is observed in high carrier mobility conductors (e.g. superconductors) and at very high frequencies.

A change in electromotive force (emf) will be opposed by the inertia of the charge carriers since, like all objects with mass, they prefer to be traveling at constant velocity and therefore it takes a finite time to accelerate the particle. This is similar to how a change in emf is opposed by the finite rate of change of magnetic flux in an inductor. The resulting phase lag in voltage is identical for both energy storage mechanisms, making them indistinguishable in a normal circuit.

Kinetic inductance () arises naturally in the Drude model of electrical conduction when the relaxation time (collision time) is taken to be non-zero. This model defines a complex conductivity in a time-varying electric field of frequency given by . The imaginary part arises from kinetic inductance. The Drude complex conductivity can be expanded into its real and imaginary components:


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