Some electrical characteristics of lithium and yttrium sialons

Some electrical properties of hot-pressed lithium sialons, Li _x/8Si_6–3x/4Al_5x/8O _x N_8–x havingx<5 and an yttrium sialon were measured between 291 and 775 K; the former consisted essentially of a single crystalline phase whereas the latter contained 98% glassy phase. For lithium sialons, the charging and discharging current followed al(t) t ^–nlaw withn=0.8 at room temperature. The d.c. conductivities were about 10^–13 ohm^–1 cm^–1 at 291 K and rose to 5×10^–7 ohm^–1 cm^–1 at 775 K. At high temperatures electrode polarization effects were observed in d.c. measurements. The variation of the conductivity over the frequency range 200 Hz to 9.3 GHz followed the () ⁿ law. The data also fitted the Universal dielectric law,() ^n–1 well, and approximately fitted the Kramers-Kronig relation()/()– =cot (n/2) withn decreasing from 0.95 at 291 K to 0.4 at 775 K. The temperature variations of conductivities did not fit linearly in Arrhenius plots. Very similar behaviour was observed for yttrium sialon except that no electrode polarization was observed. The results have been compared with those obtained previously for pure sialon; the most striking feature revealed being that _d.c. for lithium sialon can be at least 10³ times higher than that of pure sialon. Interpretation of the data in terms of hopping conduction suggests that very similar processes are involved in all three classes of sialon.