Small power-law dependence of ionic conductivity and diffusional dimensionality in β-alumina

Abstract

AC conductivity σ(ω) of single crystals of Ag β-alumina and Na β-alumina has been studied in the temperature range from approximately 100K to room temperature. The DC regime of σ(ω), which had a close relation to the ion dynamics for the long-range diffusion, was found to have the small power-law dependence σ(ω)∝ωn with frequency exponent n=0.11–0.15, not σ(ω)∝ω0=const. In higher frequencies, the σ(ω) was monotonically increasing with Log-frequency and was put into Jonscher's universal law (σ(ω)∝ω0.6). The β-alumina is an ideal two-dimensional super ionic conductor. Its low-dimensionality and the scaling theory for a random walk enable us to understand the small power-law dependence of ionic conductivity. We suggested that a “scale-invariance” would hold true behind the super ionic conduction in the self-similarity point of view.