Development of an experimental tool for measuring electrical properties of materials from liquid nitrogen temperature up to 1000°C

An equipment for thermally stimulated current (TSC) analysis has been developed. The system can be operated at temperatures from 90 up to 1273 K. The cryogenic system developed for measuring the electrical properties of materials below room temperature is described. The reactor containing the sample is hermetically closed and can be operated from high vacuum (<10−5 mbar) up to 1 bar over the temperature range. Moreover, the reactor is equipped with a very simple tool for measuring the influence of the pressure on the electrical properties of the analysed samples, which is of interest if piezoelectric materials are involved. The force to be exerted on the pellet’s surface can be selected by the user. The determination of the dielectric permittivity of BaTiO3 as a function of the temperature has been used for checking the equipment. It has been shown that the peak temperatures for the rhombohedral ⇔ orthorhombic ⇔ tetragonal ⇔ cubic transitions are clearly detected.