On the conduction mechanism in ionic glasses

Conduction mechanism in ionic glasses is still considered one of the great challenges in physics and chemistry of glasses [A. Bunde, K. Funke, and M. Ingram, Solid State Ionics 105, 1 (1998)]. We show that consequent application of the routine percolation theory leads to the consistent description of most puzzling conduction effects for both direct current (dc) and alternating current (ac) conductivity. Moreover, comparison of the theoretical results with experimental data reveals the well-known random-energy model suggested a few decades ago for ionic transport in glasses as a very plausible model. The results provide a general basis for the study of transport phenomena in ionic glasses. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics.