Some aspects of the theory of thermally activated processes in dielectric and viscoelastic materials

Abstract

With reference to some recent criticism, it is shown in section 1 that the conventional expression for the thermally stimulated dielectric depolarization current is correct. The problem of a distribution of relaxation times versus a distribution of activation energies is discussed in section 2. It is shown that multiple TSC peaks are compatible with a single activation energy if the system is given by a ladder structure. In viscoelasticity, as in dielectric behavior, the energy loss per cycle is frequently found to be constant over a wide interval of frequencies. This behavior can be interpreted in terms of a complex structure of loss free and lossy elements containing a single temperature-activated parameter as discussed in section 3.