AC Conductivity of Crystalline Materials and Glasses Ascribed to ADWPs

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe behavior of the frequency dependence of the conductivity, σ(ω), of numerous crystalline materials and glasses is close to an ω1.0 dependence in the limit of low temperatures and/or high frequencies (referred to as the “nearly constant loss”, or NCL, regime). Detailed analysis of this behavior, including the frequency dependence of both ε′ and ε″, shows that it can be described phenomenologically as produced by a broad distribution of asymmetric double-well potentials (ADWPs) with low activation energies. In order to obtain an understanding of the atomic origins of such potentials, we investigate the composition dependence of this behavior in such materials as crystalline CeO2:1%Y3+ ceramics with variable [Y3+] and alkali germanate glasses with variable alkali concentration. The appearance of a discrete loss peak in CeO2: 1%Y3+ helps us understand the ADWPs as due to “off-symmetry” configurations that undergo wiggling motion between adjacent minimum-energy positions.