  A thorough investigation of the dielectric properties of Cu2Ta4O12, a
material crystallizing in a pseudo-cubic, perovskite-derived structure is
presented. We measured the dielectric constant and conductivity of single
crystals in an exceptionally broad frequency range up to GHz frequencies and at
temperatures from 25 - 500 K. The detected dielectric constant is unusually
high (reaching values up to 105) and almost constant in a broad frequency and
temperature range. Cu2Ta4O12 possesses a crystal structure similar to
CaCu3Ti4O12, the compound for which such an unusually high dielectric constant
was first observed. An analysis of the results using a simple equivalent
circuit and measurements with different types of contact revealed that
extrinsic interfacial polarization effects, derived from surface barrier
capacitors are the origin of the observed giant dielectric constants. The
intrinsic properties of Cu2Ta4O12 are characterized by a (still relatively
high) dielectric constant in the order of 100 and by charge transport via
hopping conduction of Anderson-localized charge carriers.
