Abstract
In this study, we have investigated the effects of Cr dopant on the bulk trap levels and grain boundary characteristics of $Bi_2O_3$-based ZnO (ZB) varistor using admittance spectroscopy and dielectric functions (such as $Z^*,\;Y^*,\;M^*,\;{\varepsilon}^*$, and $tan{\delta}$). Admittance spectra show more than two bulk traps of $Zn_i$ and $V_o$ probably in different ionization states in ZnO-$Bi_2O_3-Cr_2O_3$ (ZBCr) system. Three kinds of temperature-dependant activation energies ($E_{bt}'s$) were calculated as 0.11~0.14 eV of attractive coulombic center, 0.16~0.17 eV of $Zn_{\ddot{i}}$, and 0.33 eV of $V_o^{\cdot}$ as dominant bulk defects. The grain boundaries of ZBCr could be electrochemically divided into two types as a sensitive to ambient oxygen i.e. electrically active one and an oxygen-insensitive i.e. electrically inactive one. The grain boundaries were electrically single type under 460 K (equivalent circuit as parallel $R_{gb1}C_{gb1}$) but separated as double one ($R_{gb1}C_{gb1}-R_{gb2}C_{gb2}$) over 480 K. It is revealed that the dielectric functions are very useful tool to separate the overlapped bulk defect levels and to characterize the electrical properties of grain boundaries.
