103 research outputs found
Non-intrinsic origin of the Colossal Dielectric Constants in CaCu3Ti4O12
The dielectric properties of CaCu3Ti4O12, a material showing colossal values
of the dielectric constant, were investigated in a broad temperature and
frequency range extending up to 1.3 GHz. A detailed equivalent circuit analysis
of the results and two crucial experiments, employing different types of
contacts and varying sample thickness, provide clear evidence that the
apparently high values of the dielectric constant in CaCu3Ti4O12 are
non-intrinsic and due to electrode polarization effects. The intrinsic
properties of CaCu3Ti4O12 are characterized by charge transport via hopping of
localized charge carriers and a relatively high dielectric constant of the
order of 100.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Channel diffusion of sodium in a silicate glass
We use classical molecular dynamics simulations to study the dynamics of
sodium atoms in amorphous NaO-4SiO. We find that the sodium
trajectories form a well connected network of pockets and channels. Inside
these channels the motion of the atoms is not cooperative but rather given by
independent thermally activated hops of individual atoms between the pockets.
By determining the probability that an atom returns to a given starting site,
we show that such events are not important for the dynamics of this system.Comment: 10 pages of Latex, 5 figures, one figure added, text expande
Origin of Low-Energy Excitations in Charge-Ordered Manganites
The low-energy excitations in the charge-ordered phase of polycrystalline
La0.25Ca0.75MnO3 are explored by frequency-domain terahertz spectroscopy. In
the frequency range from 4 cm^-1 to 700 cm^-1 (energies 0.4 meV to 90 meV) and
at temperatures down to 5 K, we do not detect any feature that can be
associated with the collective response of the spatially modulated charge
continuum. In the antiferromagnetically ordered phase, broad absorption bands
appear in the conductivity and permittivity spectra around 30 cm^-1 and 100
cm^-1 which are assigned to former acoustic phonons optically activated due to
a fourfold superstructure in the crystal lattice. Our results indicate that
characteristic energies of collective excitations of the charge-ordered phase
in La0:25Ca0:75MnO3, if any, lie below 1 meV. At our lowest frequencies of only
few wavenumbers a strong relaxation is observed above 100 K connected to the
formation of the charge-ordered state.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Origin of non-exponential relaxation in a crystalline ionic conductor: a multi-dimensional 109Ag NMR study
The origin of the non-exponential relaxation of silver ions in the
crystalline ion conductor Ag7P3S11 is analyzed by comparing appropriate
two-time and three-time 109Ag NMR correlation functions. The non-exponentiality
is due to a rate distribution, i.e., dynamic heterogeneities, rather than to an
intrinsic non-exponentiality. Thus, the data give no evidence for the relevance
of correlated back-and-forth jumps on the timescale of the silver relaxation.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Hopping Transport in the Presence of Site Energy Disorder: Temperature and Concentration Scaling of Conductivity Spectra
Recent measurements on ion conducting glasses have revealed that conductivity
spectra for various temperatures and ionic concentrations can be superimposed
onto a common master curve by an appropriate rescaling of the conductivity and
frequency. In order to understand the origin of the observed scaling behavior,
we investigate by Monte Carlo simulations the diffusion of particles in a
lattice with site energy disorder for a wide range of both temperatures and
concentrations. While the model can account for the changes in ionic activation
energies upon changing the concentration, it in general yields conductivity
spectra that exhibit no scaling behavior. However, for typical concentrations
and sufficiently low temperatures, a fairly good data collapse is obtained
analogous to that found in experiment.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Complex lithium ion dynamics in simulated LiPO3 glass studied by means of multi-time correlation functions
Molecular dynamics simulations are performed to study the lithium jumps in
LiPO3 glass. In particular, we calculate higher-order correlation functions
that probe the positions of single lithium ions at several times. Three-time
correlation functions show that the non-exponential relaxation of the lithium
ions results from both correlated back-and-forth jumps and the existence of
dynamical heterogeneities, i.e., the presence of a broad distribution of jump
rates. A quantitative analysis yields that the contribution of the dynamical
heterogeneities to the non-exponential depopulation of the lithium sites
increases upon cooling. Further, correlated back-and-forth jumps between
neighboring sites are observed for the fast ions of the distribution, but not
for the slow ions and, hence, the back-jump probability depends on the
dynamical state. Four-time correlation functions indicate that an exchange
between fast and slow ions takes place on the timescale of the jumps
themselves, i.e., the dynamical heterogeneities are short-lived. Hence, sites
featuring fast and slow lithium dynamics, respectively, are intimately mixed.
In addition, a backward correlation beyond the first neighbor shell for highly
mobile ions and the presence of long-range dynamical heterogeneities suggest
that fast ion migration occurs along preferential pathways in the glassy
matrix. In the melt, we find no evidence for correlated back-and-forth motions
and dynamical heterogeneities on the length scale of the next-neighbor
distance.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figure
Colossal dielectric constants in transition-metal oxides
Many transition-metal oxides show very large ("colossal") magnitudes of the
dielectric constant and thus have immense potential for applications in modern
microelectronics and for the development of new capacitance-based
energy-storage devices. In the present work, we thoroughly discuss the
mechanisms that can lead to colossal values of the dielectric constant,
especially emphasising effects generated by external and internal interfaces,
including electronic phase separation. In addition, we provide a detailed
overview and discussion of the dielectric properties of CaCu3Ti4O12 and related
systems, which is today's most investigated material with colossal dielectric
constant. Also a variety of further transition-metal oxides with large
dielectric constants are treated in detail, among them the system La2-xSrxNiO4
where electronic phase separation may play a role in the generation of a
colossal dielectric constant.Comment: 31 pages, 18 figures, submitted to Eur. Phys. J. for publication in
the Special Topics volume "Cooperative Phenomena in Solids: Metal-Insulator
Transitions and Ordering of Microscopic Degrees of Freedom
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