Hole-Burning Spectroscopy and Relaxation Dynamics of Amorphous Solids at Low Temperatures

• DOI: 10.1126/science.237.4815.618
• Publication Date: 2006-10-05T20:28:58Z
• Authors: R. Jankowiak; G. J. Small
• Keywords: Bistability; Picosecond; Atmospheric temperature range

The magnitude and temperature dependence of most the properties amorphous solids are anomalous at very low temperatures (≲ 1 Kelvin). Phonon-assisted tunneling a distribution glassy bistable configurations, or two-level systems, can account for these anomalies. A unified understanding low-temperature is required an state. Persistent nonphotochemical hole burning impurity optical transitions allows glass state to be produced that thermally inaccessible preburn state, probing dynamics on time scales range between picoseconds days. These data combined with recently obtained functions systems offer new insights into dynamics.