Electrical properties of silicate glasses of low level gadolinium oxide doping including dielectric and infrared measures

Abstract

Glasses of the composition (mol%) 15Na2O, 20CaO, 65SiO2 doped with low contents of Gd2O3 (0.14–0.83 × 10−2 mol per 100 g glass) were prepared by the melt quenching method. The effect of Gd2O3 content on the electrical, dielectric and infrared properties of the silicate glass was studied. The Gd2O3 content in the silicate glass provides more non-bridging oxygen atoms into the micro structure, yet the strong field strength of Gd3+ ions in this glass has a counter effect that leads to a contraction in its micro structure. This contraction leads to decrease of water bands in the IR transmittance spectra. Gd2O3 increases the conductivity σac which is due to ionic and electronic carriers. Variation of log σac as a function of frequency shows a hopping frequency (ωh) that occurs at lower frequency values as mol of Gd2O3 content was increased. The real part of the dielectric constant (e′) for glass containing 0.0083 mol Gd2O3 shows a value of 450 at 1 kHz which may make it as a promising candidate for energy storage in electronic applications.