Universal dielectric loss in amorphous solids from simultaneous bias and microwave field

Abstract

We derive the ac dielectric loss in glasses due to resonant processes created by two-level systems and a swept electric field bias. It is shown that at sufficiently large ac fields and bias sweep rates the nonequilibrium loss tangent created by the two fields approaches a universal maximum determined by the bare linear dielectric permittivity. In addition this nonequilibrium loss tangent is derived for a range of bias sweep rates and ac amplitudes and show that the loss tangent creates a predicted loss function that can be understood in a Landau-Zener theory and which can be used to extract the TLS density, dipole moment, and relaxation rate.Comment: To appear in Physical Review Letters, 4 pages, 3 figure