Enhancement of ionic conductivity in stabilized zirconia ceramics under millimeter-wave irradiation heating

Ionic conductivity in yttria-stabilized zirconia ceramics under millimeter-wave irradiation heating was compared with that obtained using conventional heating. The former was found to result in higher conductivity than the latter. Enhancement of the ionic conductivity and the reduction in activation energy seemed to depend on self-heating resulting from the millimeter-wave irradiation. Millimeter-wave irradiation heating restricted the degradation in conductivity accompanying over-substitution, suggesting the optimum structure that provided the maximum conductivity could be different between the two heating methods.