Charge Transport and Relaxation in Triglycine Sulphate (TGS)

Abstract

Abstract Charging currents, J-V characteristics and electron conductivity have been measured in triglycine sulphate along three crystallographic directions: a, b and c. The measurements have been taken in a wide temperature range between −196°C and 80 °C. It is found that the charging currents have short relaxation times in the directions: a and c and a long relaxation time along the ferroelec-tric b axis. The J-V characteristics in the direction of the a and c axes have the shapes characteristic for linear dielectrics with space charge limited currents. The J-V characteristic for the b axis depends on the temperature: In the region of the phase transition the Fridkin-Kreher formula (J ∝ V4/3) is satisfied; for low temperatures characteristic agrees with SCLC theory for linear dielectrics with Gaussian traps energy distribution. The d.c. conductivity along the c axis is much higher than along the a and b axes. In the investigated temperature range, the electrical conductivity has an activation character. For −100 °C < T < −193 °C there is: σ ∝ (1/T) exp (− E/kT) . The activation energy depends both on the crystallographic direction and on the temperature-range. For low temperatures, T < −100 °C, the activation energies are very small (of the order of a few hundreds eV).