What is electrical conduction?

• Electrical conduction is the movement of electrically charged particles

through a transmission medium. The movement can form an electric
current in response to an electric field. The underlying mechanism for
this movement depends on the material.
• Electrical conduction is the passage of free electrons through a
material. In ceramics the ionic bonds holding the atoms together do
not allow for free electrons.
• Conduction in metals and resistors is well described by Ohm's Law,
which states that the current is proportional to the applied electric
field.
Electronic described by Ohm’s Law
Electronic conduction Phenomena in Ceramics
• When an electric field is applied to a ceramic, the current rapidly or slowly
reaches an equilibrium direct current value. We can represent equilibrium in
terms of the number of charged particles present and their drift velocity in
the presence of an electric field. The electric-current density j is defined as
the charge transported through a unit area in a unit time.
• If the number of charged particles per unit volume is n and they have a drift
velocity of v and a charge per particle ze, where z. is the valence and e the
electronic charge, then the current density for the particle is given by,

j= nzev
The electrical conductivity σ is defined by the relationship
σ = j/E ,Where E is the electric field strength
Consequently, σ= nzev/E
• The drift velocity is directly proportional to the locally acting electric
field strength, and this ratio is defined as the mobility:
μ = v/E
The conductivity, then, is the product of the concentration and
mobility of charge carriers:
σ= nze.μ
The general characteristics of solids in relation to mobile charged
particles can be described in terms of the electron energy band
structure
• For metals there is always a finite
concentration of electrons in the
conduction band
• For semiconductors the
concentration of electrons in the
conduction band depends on
temperature and composition.
• For insulators the band gap is
sufficiently large so that normally
there are n0 electrons able to
move through the crystal, and
conductivity can only result from
the movement of charged ions.
Electron Concentration and Hole:
In a few cases of transition metal oxides such as Cr, TiO, and VO there
is an overlap of electron orbitals which results in wide unfilled d or f
bands as illustrated in Fig.

This results in a concentration of to quasi-free electrons per cubic

centimeter and essentially metallic conduction.
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In the more usual case there is an energy gap Eg between filled and
empty bands which is appreciably greater than kT. The concentration of
conduction electrons in the pure stoichiometric material is equal to the
concentration of electron holes.

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Hopping Mechanism:

In ionic host
lattices(interaction
between orbitals of
neighboring ions)

polarization of the
lattice associated wlth
the presence of
electronic carriers(the
associate consisting of
the electronic carrier
plus its polarization
field is termed as
polaron )

linear dimension smaller than the

Association weak: (large polarons),
lattice parameter between electronic
conductivity similar to quasi-free
carrier and lattice distortion:
electrons result with a small effective
smaller than the lattice parameter mass

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Hall Effect:

Consider the current flow in the rectangular sample

shown in Fig. We apply a voltage so that the right-hand
side is positive, and by convention current then flows
from right to left; but if electrons are current carriers,
they flow from left to right, that is, in the positive z
direction.
Now let us apply a magnetic field in the positive y
direction which results in a force on an electron (Lorentz
force) of e (v x B). Thus the electrons flowing at a
velocity v are deflected upward, which causes a net
accumulation of electrons at the top of the slab and an
effective net positive charge accumulation at the
bottom.
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At steady state the voltage gradient , in the x direction opposes any
further accumulation due to the motion electrons in the magnetic field:
= vB
or in terms of current density :
=B
where RH is called the Hall coefficient. For electrons, RH = - l/ne; for
holes we have a voltage of opposite sign and RH = l/pe. The Hall
mobility can be determined because we now have the concentrations n
or p:
=σ

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Seeback Effect:

When a temperature gradient is imposed on a

semiconductor more electrons are excited into the
conduction band at the higher temperature, but
the hot electrons tend to diffuse to the colder
region. When the chemical potential gradient due
to these two effects is equal but opposite to the
electric-field gradient, we have a steady state. In
addition to the flow of heat by photons (lattice
vibrations), a heat of transport H· is associated with
particle migration in a thermal gradient.

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When electrons and holes both contribute to conduction, the Seebeck
voltage is:
Q=

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Applications of electrical- conduction in
ceramics
• Most ceramics resist the flow of electric current, and for this reason
ceramic materials such as porcelain have traditionally been made into
electric insulators. Some ceramics, however, are excellent conductors of
electricity. Most of these conductors are advanced ceramics.
• Electronically conductive ceramics are used as resistors, electrodes, and
heating elements.
• semiconductor devices such as rectifiers, photocells, transistors,
thermistors, detectors, and modulators have become an important part
of modern electronics.
• electrical insulators; porcelains and glasses are used for low- and high-
voltage insulation.