Electrical and dielectric characteristics of erbium-added ZnO–V2O5-based varistor ceramics

Abstract This paper focuses on that the erbium-added ZnO–V 2 O 5 -based ceramics are attained at a sintering temperature as low as 875 °C. The effect of Er 2 O 3 addition on microstructure, electrical properties, and dielectric characteristics has been investigated. Increasing the amount of Er 2 O 3 slightly increased the densities of sintered pellets in the range of 5.52–5.59 g/cm 3 . The increase in the amount of Er 2 O 3 increased the breakdown field from 6991 to 7408 V/cm up to 0.1 mol%, whereas a further addition decreased it. The sample added with 0.1 mol% Er 2 O 3 exhibited the highest nonlinear coefficient ( α =55) and the sample added with 0.25 mol% Er 2 O 3 exhibited the lowest nonlinear coefficient ( α =14). The donor concentration increased from 2.92×10 17 to 8.48×10 17 cm −3 with an increase in the amount of Er 2 O 3 .