Space Charge Measurements with the Scanning Kelvin Probe

Space charges in solid electrolytes detected by the scanning Kelvin probe

“…A detailed description of the model is given in Refs. [19][20][21]. Here, negative mobile ions fluctuate in a multi-well energy structure thermally activated over energy barriers of the height W eff .…”

“…For the measurement of the surface potential the scanning Kelvin probe is used [20]. To this aim, PEO is spin coated with a thickness of about 1 lm onto a glass substrate with a high resistivity.…”

“…For these applications the most interesting parameter is the dc conductivity which can reach values of up to 10 À3 S/cm for PEO-salt compounds at room temperature. From measurements in the frequency domain it turned out that a space charge polarization of internal charges determines the dielectric relaxational behavior in this system [9,19,20]. Therefore, investigations concerning the detection of the space charge distributions in PEO as well as in other dielectrics and the charge injection into these materials are of high technical and practical interest.…”

“…Because the space charge polarization determines the relaxational behavior in the PEO it also determines the surface potential [20]. To measure this potential a constant voltage is applied.…”

“…Also, it is possible to measure the temporal development of the space charge polarization after a voltage step [20]. This is done by time dependent measurements of the surface potential at several fixed points.…”