ELECTRICAL-CONDUCTIVITY IN SEMICONDUCTING CUO-BI2O3-P2O5 GLASSES

DC electrical conductivity of the semiconducting glasses in the system CuO-Bi2O3-P2O5 is reported for the first time over the temperature range 80-420 K. The electrical data have been analysed in the light of the theoretical models of polaronic conduction. The analysis shows that the adiabatic hopping theory is the most appropriate to describe the polaronic conduction in the high-temperature region. At lower temperatures, a variable range hopping mechanism dominates the conduction. Various parameters such as decay constant, density of states at the Fermi level, etc., have been obtained from analysis of the electrical conductivity data.