Poling and relaxation of dipoles in dispersive media

The poling of dipoles in dispersive media under the influence of an applied electric field and the subsequent relaxation after the removal of the appl ied field have been analyzed. Both the poling and relaxation processes are described by simple and exact analytical solutions to the rotational diffus ion equation. The resulting expressions for the order parameters are power laws with respect to time and hence have no characteristic lifetimes. The p oling and relaxation rates are, in fact, determined by a single material pa rameter: the diffusion constant, D-0. These theoretical results have been e xperimentally verified for dipolar molecules doped into an amorphous polyme r host. An excellent agreement between theory and measurement was found. (C ) 2001 American Institute of Physics.