The thermal-step-technique applied to the study of charge in an ordered structure material: single-crystal quartz

The interest of this study concerns the physics of space charge, In fact, a lot of electrical phenomena (dielectric rigidity, conduction, stocking of charges), mechanical phenomena (mechanical breakdown, grain boundaries), thermal phenomena (specific heat, diffusivity, conduction) seem to be linked to the space charge presence in these materials. In this article, after recalling the principle of space charge measurement elaborated and used in the Electrotechnics Laboratory of Montpellier, we discuss measurement results obtained on single-crystal quartz samples using the thermal-step method