Isothermal relaxation of discommensurations in K2ZnCl4

At the incommensurate-ferroelectric transition temperature T c of K 2 ZnCl 4 , the dielectric susceptibility contains an anomalous contribution both above and below T c . Previous quasi-static dielectric measurements and hysteresis loops demonstrated that this anomalous part arises from the peculiar dynamics of discommensurations. We have used isothermal dielectric measurements to get some insight into the long time dynamics of these discommensurations. We have found that the characteristic relaxation times τ are of the order of 10 4 s in the incommensurate and in the ferroelectric phase. Even more unusual is a non-monotonous relaxation which is observed in a restricted temperature range ab…