Ac conductivity studies on the electron irradiated BaZrO3 ceramic

Barium zirconate (BaZrO3) powder samples were synthesized by ceramic method and their response to the high energy electron irradiation was studied in terms of their ac conductivity, dielectric constant and dielectric losses. Samples were irradiated with the 8 MeV electrons with an absorbed dose of 100 kGy. The ac conductivity is explained by the charge carrier hopping model. Irradiated BaZrO3 samples exhibited a significant variation of the frequency dependent exponent (s). The 's' parameter decreased after irradiation. The activation energy calculated from the Arrhenius plots was found to increase from 0.06 eV to 0. 16 eV after irradiation. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.