Dielectric hysteresis and relaxation in the charge-density-wave compound K0.3MoO3

The electrical properties of the charge-density-wave compound blue bronze (K0.3MoO3) have been investigated at several temperatures around T=4.2 K. A nonlinear current-voltage relationship was observed with an increase of the conductance by six orders of magnitude above a well-defined threshold voltage VT. A giant remanent dielectric polarization was recorded below VT. The polarization exhibits slow relaxation with a logarithmic or stretched exponential time dependence over the time domain of 10 msec1000 sec.