SUPERIONIC CONDUCTORS - TRANSITIONS, STRUCTURES, DYNAMICS

We outline the physics of superionic conductors with emphasis on the new insights that the research of the past few years has brought about. Section 2 deals with the basic facts pertinent to superionic conductors, i.e., their large conductivities, their liquid-like aspects and their phase transitions. Section 3 contains a description of their structural properties and the relationships of the structure to high ionic conductivities. Section 4 describes the excitation spectrum of superionic conductors, including phonon-charge carrier interactions. In section 5 we study the excitations in the strong coupling limit and their critical dynamics near phase transitions, along with their implications for light scattering and ultrasonic experiments. The final section (6) contains a through description of ion dynamics as seen through NMR techniques. © 1979.