THEORY OF MIXED CONDUCTION DUE TO CATIONIC INTERSTITIALS IN THE P-TYPE SEMICONDUCTOR CU3VS4

We give a treatment of mixed conduction which applies to compounds which are electronic semiconductors and in which the ionic conduction is due to a small number of highly mobile defects in a rigid host lattice. This situation in which the ionic conductivity is small can exist in solids at room temperature as we show on the example of sulvanite (Cu3VS4) and leads to transport effects which differ from usual mixed transport. We show in particular that it is possible to measure the concentration of interstitial cations from simple experiments involving only metallic electrodes. © 1979.