Orientational ordering of solid CO: high sensitivity dielectric measurements

Dielectric constant measurements of solid Nz have revealed strong hysteresi s effects due to geometrical frustration. To test the universality of such glassy behavior arising purely from geometrical frustration, we have made d ielectric constant/loss measurements on a similar system, CO. We find that CO does not show any hysteresis effects in the entire solid phase. We suspe ct that this is due either to the very small window of temperature when CO exists in its orientationally disordered solid phase or to the presence of a small intrinsic dipole moment making it different from a pure quadrupolar system such as N-2. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.