Understanding the charge carriers dynamics in the La0.55Ca0.45Mn0.8Nb0.2O3 perovskite: scaling of electrical conductivity spectra.

The present work proposes the best realistic theoretical approaches to examine the experimental conductivity data taken for La0.55Ca0.45Mn0.8Nb0.2O3. For this purpose, we comprehensively discussed the structural, microstructural, and electrical properties of the La0.55Ca0.45Mn0.8Nb0.2O3 perovskite. Both X-ray diffraction and Rietveld analysis show the orthorhombic structure of the ceramic. Scanning electron microscope showed the existence of well-defined irregularly shaped particles with a grain-size distribution of 0.843 µm. The X-ray photoemission spectroscopy reveals the existence of Mn3+ and Mn4+ states. The complicated behavior of the lanthanum states is demonstrated using the La3d line. AC-conductivity responses are related to the correlated barrier hopping contribution. At high temperatures, the compound's semiconductor behavior is attributed to the activation of the polaronic transport. At low temperatures, the occurrence of semiconductor behavior in the La0.55Ca0.45Mn0.8Nb0.2O3 ceramic is attributed to the effect of the variable range hopping conduction process. The application of the time-temperature-superposition-principle and the Summerfield scaling formalisms leads to the superposition of the isotherms. Using the Ghosh formalism, the superposition of the spectra confirms that the number density and the hopping distance are temperature-dependent. The superposition of the spectra suggested the temperature-independent relaxation and polaronic processes. In addition, it confirms that the relaxation mechanism is independent of the microstructure response.

Investigation of annealing effects on the physical properties of Ni0.6Zn0.4Fe1.5Al0.5O4 ferrite.

In the present study, the structural, morphological, electrical, and dielectric properties of Ni0.6Zn0.4Fe1.5Al0.5O4 annealed at 600 °C, 900 °C, and 1200 °C were investigated. The X-ray diffraction patterns confirmed the presence of the single-phase cubic spinel structure with the Fd3̄m space group. The SEM images of Ni0.6Zn0.4Fe1.5Al0.5O4 nanoparticles demonstrated that these samples (Ni900 and Ni1200) were nano-sized and that the increase in annealing temperature enhanced the agglomeration rate. It was found that the electrical conductivity of the system improved on increasing the temperature over the whole explored range for the two low annealing temperatures, while this improvement declined after 500 K in the case of the highest annealing temperature. For such a sample, a metallic behavior was seen. The sample annealed at 1200 °C possessed the highest conductivity and the lowest activation energy. The impedance measurements were in good agreement with the conductivity plots and confirmed the emergence of a grain boundary effect with the increase in annealing temperature. For the sample annealed at the highest temperature, Z' decreased rapidly with frequency. This sample exhibited the lowest defect density than the other samples. Consequently, its electrical conductivity increased. A Nyquist diagram was used to examine the contribution of the grains and grain boundary to conduction and to model each sample by an equivalent electrical circuit. The dielectric behavior of the investigated samples was correlated to the polarization effect.

Investigation of the structural, optical, elastic and electrical properties of spinel LiZn2Fe3O8 nanoparticles annealed at two distinct temperatures.

Nanoparticles of Li0.5ZnFe1.5O4 (LiZn2Fe3O8) with the spinel structure were prepared by a sol-gel auto-combustion method at two different annealing temperatures. X-ray diffractograms and Rietveld refinement confirmed the formation of the spinel structure. The morphology was analyzed by electron microscopy, which showed that the grains were composed of different crystallites. Elastic properties were determined from infrared spectroscopy. It was found that the elastic parameters increased with the increase in annealing temperatures. The band gap depends on the annealing temperature and it decreased on increasing the particle size. The conductivity of the specimen annealed at 500 °C followed either the Jonscher's model or Drude's model depending on the temperature range. This conductivity decreased when the annealing temperature was raised by 600 °C. AC conductivity was found to be controlled by the hopping model. A single relaxation phenomenon was evidenced for each sample from impedance analysis. The Nyquist diagram proved that the samples were simultaneously capacitive and resistive and also supported the presence of multiple relaxation times.

Conduction mechanism, impedance spectroscopic investigation and dielectric behavior of La0.5Ca0.5-xAgxMnO3 manganites with compositions below the concentration limit of silver solubility in perovskites (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.2).

This study presents the electrical properties, complex impedance analysis and dielectrical behavior of La0.5Ca0.5-xAgxMnO3 manganites with compositions below the concentration limit of silver solubility in perovskites (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.2). Transport measurements indicate that all the samples have a semiconductor-like behavior. The metal-semiconductor transition is not observed across the whole temperature range explored [80 K-700 K]. At a specific temperature, a saturation region was marked in the σ (T) curves. We obtained a maximum σdc value at ambient temperature with the introduction of 20% Ag content. Two hopping models were applied to study the conduction mechanism. We found that activation energy (Ea) related to ac-conductivity is lower than the Ea implicated in dc-conductivity. Complex impedance analysis confirms the contribution of grain boundary to conductivity and permits the attribution of grain boundary capacitance evolution to the temperature dependence of the barrier layer width. From the temperature dependence of the average normalized change (ANC), we deduce the temperature at which the available density of trapped charge states vanishes. Such a temperature is close to the temperature at which the saturation region appears in σ(T) curves. Moreover, complex impedance analysis (CIA) indicates the presence of electrical relaxation in materials. It is noteworthy that relaxation species such as defects may be responsible for electrical conduction. The dielectric behavior of La0.5Ca0.5-xAgxMnO3 manganites has a Debye-like relaxation with a sharp decrease in the real part of permittivity at a frequency where the imaginary part of permittivity (ε'') and tg δ plots versus frequency demonstrate a relaxation peak. The Debye-like relaxation is explained by Maxwell-Wagner (MW) polarization. Experimental results are found to be in good agreement with the Smit and Wijn theory.