ON RELAXATION OF DIELECTRIC-CONSTANT IN THE RANGE OF PHASE-TRANSITIONFROM INCOMMENSURATE TO COMMENSURATE POLAR PHASE IN RH2ZNCL4 CRYSTALS

Slow relaxation of the dielectric constant epsilon of an inhomogeneous structure transformed into the nonequilibrium state in a jumpwise man ner has been studied in both incommensurate and commensurate polar pha ses of a Br2ZnCl4 crystal. It is shown that in both phases, relaxation obeys the logarithmic temporal law characteristic of numerous inhomog eneous systems with uniform distributions of energies of the barriers separating metastable and thermodynamically equilibrium states. The re laxation times and energy barriers, which have the maximum values at t he point of the structural phase transition, are evaluated.