L. Bellon, S. Ciliberto and C. Laroche, Europhysics Letters 51 551-556 (2000)
doi: 10.1209/epl/i2000-00368-1
Low-frequency dielectric measurements on plexiglass (PMMA) show that cooling and heating the sample at constant rate give a hysteretic dependence on temperature of the dielectric constant ε. A temporary stop of cooling produces a downward relaxation of ε. Two main features are observed: i) when cooling is resumed ε goes back to the values obtained without the cooling stop ( i.e. the low-temperature state is independent of the cooling history); ii) upon reheating ε keeps the memory of the aging history ( Memory ). The analogies and differences with similar experiments done in spin-glasses are discussed.
