Theory of thermal dielectric relaxation and direct determination of trap parameters

A theoretical study is made of the effect of dielectric relaxation on the thermal electrical characteristics of metal-insulator-metal systems in which the electrodes make blocking contacts with the insulator and in which the trap level is close to the Fermi level. The system is cooled to a low temperature (150K) and is then heated at a uniform heating rate under a constant applied voltage. The current-temperature characteristics are plotted. The authors present analytical expressions for the effective trap energy, the occupied trap density and the temperature of maximum dielectric relaxation current. The latter depends on the applied field, the heating rate, the density of occupied trap states and the effective energy of traps. The results so obtained can also be verified in a self-consistent way.