Electronic relaxation in the PbOSiO2Fe2O3 glass system

The a.c. and d.c. conductivities of PbOSiO₂ glass with 0–10 mole% Fe₂O₃ additions were measured in the temperature range 77–700 K. Two relaxation processes were noted. The relaxation mechanism at lower temperatures is due to polaron hopping between ferric-ferrous ion pairs with a distribution of relaxation times which is energy independent. The second relaxation phenomenon, at higher temperatures is polaron hopping along iron ion chains in the glass of which the pairs responsible for the first process are a part. A theoreticalmodel is proposed and additional evidence for this model is presented in the form of magnetic susceptibility and electron spin resonance (esr) data.