VARISTOR EFFECT IN SEMICONDUCTOR FERROELECTRICS

This paper treats the effect of an external field on the magnitude of potential barriers and the potential contour near a charged boundary b etween crystallites in polycrystalline ferroelectric semiconductors. I t is shown that this effect depends on the mutual directions of the ex ternal held and the polarization in the ferroelectric bulk, and that t he appearance of various types of nonlinear dependences of the current on voltage in polycrystalline ferroelectrics can be explained by the transfer of charge carriers in the fields of potential barriers with d ifferent profiles. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.