Model of barrier conduction in samarium sulfide polycrystals

A model of barrier conduction has been proposed based on the study of the dependence of the electrical conduction activation energy in semiconducting samples of samarium sulfide polycrystals on the annealing temperature. It has been shown that the height of potential energy barriers that conduction electrons overcome during electron transfer lies in the range of 0–0.08 eV. The existence of potential barriers is due to the joining of adjacent crystallites in the polycrystal during its annealing. At temperatures of 300–400 K, the conduction activation energy can be in the range from 0.04 to 0.12 eV, independently of the method used for synthesizing the material, and is determined only by the annealing temperature of the sample.