• 한국재료학회지
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• 제31권10호
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• pp.539-545
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• 2021

The effect of Sm₂O₃ doping on the microstructure and electrical properties of the ZPCCA-based varistors is comprehensively investigated. The increase of doping content of Sm₂O₃ results in better densification (from 5.70 to 5.82 g/cm³) and smaller mean grain size (from 7.8 to 4.1 ㎛). The breakdown electric field increases significantly from 2568 to 6800 V/cm as the doping content of Sm₂O₃ increases. The doping of Sm₂O₃ remarkably improves the nonlinear properties (increasing from 23.9 to 91 in the nonlinear coefficient and decreasing from 35.2 to 0.2 µA/cm² in the leakage current density). Meanwhile, the doping of Sm₂O₃ reduces the donor concentration (the range of 2.73 × 10¹⁸ to 1.18 × 10¹⁸ cm^-3) of bulk grain and increases the barrier height (the range of 1.10 to 1.49 eV) at the grain boundary. The density of the interface states decreases in the range of of 5.31 × 10¹² to 4.08 × 10¹² cm^-2 with the increase of doping content of Sm₂O₃. The dielectric constant decreases from 1594.8 to 507.5 with the increase of doping content of Sm₂O₃.