PRESENTATION OF EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS ON RELAXATION IN THE TIME-DOMAIN

In experiments on dielectric relaxation, useful information can be obt ained not only from the relaxation function but also from the product of the depolarization current and the time. It is shown that this prod uct must have a maximum, and the time t(m) of this maximum is expected to have physical significance. In particular, if the relaxation funct ion is described by a stretched exponential function, exp[-(t/tau)(bet a)], then t(m) = tau, and a comparison between t(m), and the value of tau derived from fitting the relaxation function to a stretched expone ntial function provides an important test of how well this function ac tually fits the experimental results. Such a presentation of the data is also useful, for instance, in the analysis of experiments on photol uminescence and on the decay of photocurrents in amorphous semiconduct ors. [S0163-1829(97)51442-1].