Quasi-equilibrium nature of conductivity peaking of BaTiO₃ in current-time characteristics

The stoichiometric quasi-insulating BaTiO3 single crystals, in which the conductance due to the impurities are minimized, is found to exhibit an intrinsic conductance that is manifested as the sharp peaks at the phase transitions. To examine whether this conductance represents the conduction through the inside of the crystals or is apparent one due to the current flowing only in the external circuit such as the switching current by the domain motion, we measure the long-time changes of the conduction. The present results demonstrate that the observed peak corresponds to the real current conduction in the quasi-equilibrium state. Additionally, a new measurement scheme is proposed.