Relaxation of Electronic and Ionic Polarization in Liquid Copper Selenide

The diffusion constants of both cation and anion in liquid Cu ₂Se have been measured based on the time dependence of decaying residual potential due to the charge polarization after the turning-off of applied current. The experimental decaying curves were fitted by three exponential terms. Two terms correspond to the diffusion process of copper and selenium ions, respectively, and the test is attributed to a relaxation of electronic polarization. It is found that the temperature dependences of diffusion constants of copper and selenium ions are negligibly small, on the other hand, the relaxation time of electronic polarization increases with increasing temperature.