Bombardment induced ion transport—Part II. Experimental potassium ion conductivities in borosilicate glass

Abstract

A new experimental approach for measuring the ionic conductivity of solid materials is proposed. The experiment is based on bombarding an ion conducting sample with an alkali ion beam. This generates a well defined surface potential which in turn causes ion transport in the material. The ion transport is measured at the back side of the sample. The viability of the concept is demonstrated by measuring the temperature dependence of the potassium ion conductivity of a potassium borosilicate glass. The activation energy for the potassium transport is 1.04 eV ± 0.06 eV. For comparison, conductivity data obtained by impedance spectroscopy are presented, which support the bombardment induced data.