Hysteresis phenomena in the incommensurate phase of (TMA)₂ZnCl₄, and at the lock-in transition

Abstract

We performed accurate dielectric measurements in the region close to the lock-in transition of (TMA)₂ZnCl₄, at 10 kHz. Partial and complete hysteresis cycles are presented, and sample dependences and influence of thermal history are found. The observations are compared to results on solitons, obtained by other methods.