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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Low-temperature specific heat of orientational glasses

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This review summarizes specific heat data measured at low temperatures (T<1 K) on orientational glasses. Three species of mixed molecular crystals exhibiting orientational disorder are considered, namely (KBr)1−x (KCN) x , (NaCN)1−x (KCN) x (Rb)1−x (NH4) x H2PO4. For intermediate concentrations of the anisotropic components, glass-like excitations have been observed. It is demonstrated that with respect to thermal properties, orientational disorder leads to the same “universal” behaviours than for structural disorder, i.e. a specific heat which varies below 1 K and for times 10−4 s–10 s as:C p(T,t)∞T 1×ln(t). The variation of the glass-like anomaly with compositional disorder is also discussed. It is concluded that the low-energy excitations are related to orientational degrees of freedom which are frozen at low temperatures but still perform reorientations via quantum tunneling motions.