Doping Effect of Yb2O3 on Varistor Properties of ZnO-V2O5-MnO2-Nb2O5 Ceramic Semiconductors

This study describes the doping effect of $Yb_2O_3$ on microstructure, electrical and dielectric properties of $ZnO-V_2O_5-MnO_2-Nb_2O_5$ (ZVMN) ceramic semiconductors sintered at a temperature as low as $900^{\circ}C$. As the doping content of $Yb_2O_3$ increases, the ceramic density slightly increases from 5.50 to $5.54g/cm^3$; also, the average ZnO grain size is in the range of $5.3-5.6{\mu}m$. The switching voltage increases from 4,874 to 5,494 V/cm when the doping content of $Yb_2O_3$ is less than 0.1 mol%, whereas further doping decreases this value. The ZVMN ceramic semiconductors doped with 0.1 mol% $Yb_2O_3$ reveal an excellent nonohmic coefficient as high as 70. The donor density of ZnO gain increases in the range of $2.46-7.41{\times}10^{17}cm^{-3}$ with increasing doping content of $Yb_2O_3$ and the potential barrier height and surface state density at the grain boundaries exhibits a maximum value (1.25 eV) at 0.1 mol%. The dielectric constant (at 1 kHz) decreases from 592.7 to 501.4 until the doping content of $Yb_2O_3$ reaches 0.1 mol%, whereas further doping increases it. The value of $tan{\delta}$ increases from 0.209 to 0.268 with the doping content of $Yb_2O_3$.