Conductivity and optical absorption of semiconducting WO3 glasses

The dc conductivity and optical properties of WO₃---B₂O₃---ZnO glasses containing up to 80% WO₃ have been measured and are analyzed using small polaron hopping theory. The thermal hopping energy E_H is estimated from the temperature dependence of the conductivity, but an accurate determination of its value is not possible due to the continuous curvature of the conductivity plots. The optical absorption is dominated by W⁵⁺ ligand field absorption in the visible and by a band edge at 3.5 eV; the absorption by the small polarons is too weak to be observed directly. The optical hopping energy E_o is determined from the thermomodulation spectra. The values obtained for E_H and E_o can be combined to give a polaron binding energy and a disorder energy both approximately equal to 0.4 eV. A similar disorder energy is obtained from an analysis of the electro-modulation spectra in the band edge region.