Anisotropy of the ionic conductivity of CsCu2Cl3 single crystals

The conductivity of CsCu₂Cl₃ single crystals (orthorhombic system, sp. gr. Cmcm) has been investigated for different electric-field directions, perpendicular to the crystallographic c axis and along it, in the temperature range 390–530 K. The increase in conductivity with temperature is due to the ion-carrier transport with activation energies E _a = 0.65 and 0.80 eV for the directions perpendicular to and along the crystallographic axis, respectively. The anisotropy of the crystal ionic conductivity is found to be σ_⊥c /σ_∥c ≈ 40 at 435 K. The thermally activated contribution to the conductivity in the CsCu₂Cl₃ structure is determined by the transport of Cu⁺ ions.