Comparison of biasing effects between sodium metaphosphate and silver metaphosphate glasses

Comparison is made between sodium metaphosphate glass and silver metaphosphate glass with regard to electrical response to biasing with a dc pulse train. Both glasses show polarization and depolarization peaks at the onsets of biasing and off biasing, respectively. The polarization for the former glass is ∼2×10−6 C cm−2 while it is one order of magnitude less for the latter. Besides, the relaxation time for the former is several orders of magnitude longer than that of the latter. The origin of these differences is discussed. Finally, some insight is given into the question why a silver-conducting glass as silver metaphosphate is far more conductive than an alkali-conducting glass as sodium metaphosphate.