title: Huge (but finite) time scales in slow relaxations: beyond simple aging.
abstract: Experiments performed in the last years demonstrated slow relaxations and aging in the conductance of a large variety of materials. Here, we present experimental and theoretical results for conductance relaxation and aging for the case-study example of porous silicon. The relaxations are experimentally observed even at room temperature over time scales of hours, and when a strong electric field is applied for a time tw, the ensuing relaxation depends on tw. We derive a theoretical curve and show that all experimental data collapse onto it with a single time scale as a fitting parameter. This time scale is found to be of the order of thousands of seconds at room temperature. The generic theory suggested is not fine-tuned to porous silicon, and thus we believe the results should be universal, and the presented method should be applicable for many other systems manifesting memory and other glassy effects.
authors: Department of Condensed Matter Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
authors: Ariel
authors: A
authors: Amir
authors: Stefano
authors: S
authors: Borini
authors: Yuval
authors: Y
authors: Oreg
authors: Yoseph
authors: Y
authors: Imry
mesh_terms: D004553:Electric Conductivity; D016062:Porosity; D012825:Silicon / Q000737:chemistry; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D012825:Silicon