Electrical conduction in lead-iron glasses

Temperature and compositional dependences of electrical conductivity in lead-iron glasses are reported. The experimental results are analysed in the light of existing theories. It has been observed that the electrical conduction in these glass compositions at high temperatures is best described by Mott's phonon-assisted hopping model, while the low-temperature data are consistent with the variable-range hopping model. Hopping at high temperatures occurs in the non-adiabatic regime. The generalized hopping model of Schnakenberg is the best to interpret the temperature dependences of the conductivity and activation energy over the glass compositions studied. Values of the physical parameters obtained by the best fits of the experimental data are consistent with the glass compositions.