Irreversible structural relaxation in amorphous Pd82Si18: a two-level-systems analysis

Abstract

Kinetic analysis of experimental results shows that an independent two-level-systems (TLS) model can account for the effects of irreversible structural relaxation on the electrical resistance of Pd82Si18, provided that a broad spectrum of activation energies of the TLSS is invoked. Using Eyring's theory of the rates of chemical reaction, the authors show that the real TLS transition attempt frequency nu 0 is up to two orders of magnitude less than the apparent attempt frequency v and that v0 is much lower than a typical Debye frequency.