Temperature hysteresis in dielectric and transport properties of charge density wave system o-TaS₃

Abstract
We report on the temperature hysteresis observed in low frequency dielectric response and in nonlinear conductivity of charge density wave (CDW) system o-TaS₃. Between CDW transition temperature at 220 K and the glass transition temperature at 50 K both the amplitude and the relaxation time of the low frequency relaxational process are higher on heating than on cooling with similar temperature dependence as the well-known hysteresis in low field resistivity, but different hysteresis width. On the other hand, the hysteresis in the nonlinear conductivity can be seen only as the difference between the initial and subsequent I/V characteristics at given temperature implying field-induced relaxation from history dependent metastable states to stable, history independent state.