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

This paper focuses on that the erbium-added ZnO–V2O5-based ceramics are attained at a sintering temperature as low as 875 °C. The effect of Er2O3 addition on microstructure, electrical properties, and dielectric characteristics has been investigated. Increasing the amount of Er2O3 slightly increased the densities of sintered pellets in the range of 5.52–5.59 g/cm3. The increase in the amount of Er2O3 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% Er2O3 exhibited the highest nonlinear coefficient (α=55) and the sample added with 0.25 mol% Er2O3 exhibited the lowest nonlinear coefficient (α=14). The donor concentration increased from 2.92×1017 to 8.48×1017 cm−3 with an increase in the amount of Er2O3.