Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol.101, No.32, 6212-6214, 1997
Electrical-Properties of the Ice/Solid Interface
The electrical properties of ice-metal and ice-dielectric (SiO2) interfaces were investigated using a field effect transistor technique applied to ice. This technique allows us to measure the initial electric surface charge, the surface conductivity, the mobilities of the charge carriers, and the screening length of the electric charge near the interface, It was found that the surface conductivity depends nonlinearly on the bias applied to the surface and varies from 1.5 x 10(-10) ohm(-1) to 3 x 10(-10) ohm(-1) as the bias changes between +/-1 V. Application of a bias voltage irreversibly changes the conductivity and surface charge of ice, The surface charge can be negative or positive within the limits of +/-1 x 10(-4) C/m(2). We measured the mobilities of negative and positive surface charge carriers at a temperature of -10 degrees C : mu(-) = (3 +/- 0.5) x 10(-7) m(2)/(Vs), and mu(+) = (1.2 +/- 0.3) x 10(-7) m(2)/(Vs), The high mobility of the negative charge carriers indirectly indicates that the molecular structure of ice surface differs from that of the bulk. An upper limit to the estimated screening length of the electrical charge near the ice-metal interface at -10 degrees C is 2 nm.