Dielectric hole burning in an electrical circuit analog of a dynamically heterogeneous system

The dielectric properties of a dynamically heterogeneous material are represented by an R–C network in order to study the effects of spectrally selective Joule heating for the situation encountered in (non-resonant) dielectric hole burning (DHB). The energy irreversibly transferred to the system is calculated for a finite number of high electric field sine waves, corresponding to the ‘burn’ cycle preceeding the polarization measurement in a DHB experiment. As a result of the residual polarization, heating continues after the externally applied voltage is set to zero. Modelling temperature-dependent relaxation times by a common negative temperature coefficient for the resistive elements is the only non-linearity of the electrical circuit analog required to reproduce most of the major features observed in DHB experiments.