Grain boundary effect on the dielectric properties of CaCu3Ti4O12 ceramics

The electrical properties of CaCu3Ti4O12 ceramic materials, showing an enormously large dielectric constant, were investigated. It was found that the grain boundary plays an important role in the giant dielectric behaviour of these ceramics. Measurement of the electrical current density (J) versus the electrical field (E) was carried out. A good linear relationship between InJ and E (1/2) was found, which demonstrates that the Schottky barrier should exist at the grain boundary. A double Schottky barrier model composed of a depletion layer and a negative charge sheet was proposed, analogous to the barrier model for ZnO varistors. An activation energy value of about 0.6 eV was obtained from the data of the characteristic frequency corresponding to the peak of the imaginary part of the dielectric permittivity versus temperature, which may be attributed to the activation of V-O(center dot) to V-O(center dot center dot) in the depletion layer.