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Science 1 November 1996:
Vol. 274. no. 5288, pp. 752 - 754
DOI: 10.1126/science.274.5288.752
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Reports

Nonresonant Spectral Hole Burning in the Slow Dielectric Response of Supercooled Liquids

B. Schiener, R. Böhmer, * A. Loidl, dagger R. V. Chamberlin *

Large-amplitude, low-frequency electric fields can be used to burn spectral holes in the dielectric response of supercooled propylene carbonate and glycerol. This ability to selectively modify the dielectric response establishes that the non-Debye behavior results from a distribution of relaxation times. Refilling of the spectral hole was consistent with a single recovery time that coincided with the peak in the distribution. Moreover, refilling occurred without significant broadening, which indicates negligible direct exchange between the degrees of freedom that responded to the field. Nonresonant spectral hole burning facilitates direct investigation of the intrinsic response of systems that exhibit nonexponential relaxation.

B. Schiener and A. Loidl, Institut für Festkörperphysik, Technische Hochschule, D-64289 Darmstadt, Germany.
R. Böhmer, Institut für Physikalische Chemie, Johannes Gutenberg Universität, D-55099 Mainz, Germany.
R. V. Chamberlin, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed.

dagger    Present address: Universität Augsburg, Universitätsstrasse 2, D-86135 Augsburg, Germany.

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