Bombardment Induced Ion Transport through Ion Conducting Glasses

Abstract

The recently developed bombardment induced ion transport (BIIT) technique is reviewed. BIIT is based on shining an energy-selected alkali ion beam at the surface of a sample of interest. Attachment of these ions leads to the build-up of a surface potential and a surface particle density. This in turn generates the corresponding gradients which induce ion transport towards a single metal electrode connected to the backside of the sample where it is detected as a neutralization current. Two different versions of BIIT are presented, i.) the native ion BIIT and ii.) the foreign ion BIIT. The former is demonstrated to provide access to absolute ionic conductivities and activation energies, the latter leads to the generation of electrodiffusion profiles. Theoretical modelling of these concentration profiles by means of the Nernst-Planck-Poisson theory allows to deduce the concentration dependence of diffusion coefficients.