Microstructure and electrical properties of silica-Zn2SiO4-Mn glass-ceramics as composite for optoelectronic devices

In the present study, silica-Zn2SiO4-Mn (silica-ZSiMn) glass-ceramics samples were synthesized via was elaborated by sol-gel route. The microstructure and electrical properties of glass-ceramics samples was investigated. The crystal structure and microstructure of glass-ceramics were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) techniques. XRD studies reveal the presence of Zn2SiO4 phases. Electrical studies show that as frequency increases, the conductivity decreases until a specific frequency (f(min)) at which the conductivity starts to increase. However, the exponent 's' decreases with temperature, which proves that the CBH (correlated barrier hopping) is the suitable process which assures the conduction. The ac activation energy decreases with the increase of frequency which is a normal physically explicable attitude. We believe that these findings provide the fundamental understanding about smart glass-ceramics materials for possible electronic applications.