Electrical conductivity and breakdown properties of some erbium oxide doped phosphovanadate glasses

Abstract Electrical conductivity and breakdown properties have been investigated for 70%V2O5·(30–x)%P2O5·x%Er2O3 glasses with (0≤x≤0.9). The conductivity measurements are carried out at frequency range from 80 to 3×106  Hz, and at temperature range from 303 to 463. The dc electrical conductivity (σdc) and dc activation energy (Edc) are shown to be relatively sensitive to the composition. σdc is found to vary between 3×10−4 and 0.024 Ω−1 m−1, and Edc is estimated to be in the range 0.36–0.44 eV. On the other hand, σac is found to vary between 7×10−4 and 0.15 Ω−1 m−1. Both σdc and σac are discussed according to the multi phonon hopping process of weak electron-lattice coupling, they are found to be proportional to Tp with the exponent p between 11.5 and 13.15. All the samples exhibit a threshold type switching with a maximum current of about 3 mA. All the samples are found to present breakdown properties at diferent critical voltages. The threshold voltage (Vth) values are afected by ambient temperature, sample thickness and composition ratio. Measured surface temperature during the switching cycles and the calculated core temperature confrm the repeatedly switching of the samples without any internal thermal destruction occur.