ELECTRICAL-CONDUCTION IN SILICATE-GLASSES CONTAINING ANTIMONY OXIDE

DC and AC resistivities of some oxide glasses containing antimony oxide have been measured over a temperature range of -160 degrees C to +200 degrees C. A sharp minimum in the DC resistivity values for all the compositions has been observed at around 35 degrees C. On the basis of chemical analysis and DTA studies it is shown that at temperatures below 35 degrees C the conductivity arises due to the presence of both Sb5+ and Sb3+ ions in the glass system. The AC conductivity in this temperature range obeys the relation of sigma (f) varies as fn with n having a value of approximately 1.0. The hopping conduction model of Pollak (1971) has been used to calculate the density of states N(EF) which is found to be of the order of 1020 cm-3 eV-1.