Metastability and hysteresis in the low-frequency dielectric response of the charge-density wave in K0.3MoO3

We have investigated the dielectric response of the charge-density wave (CDW) in K0.3MoO3 at temperatures between 30 and 90 K, a temperature regime where the effects of metastable CDW states become the dominant influence on the low-frequency CDW behavior. We observe temperature-quenched metastable CDW states at temperatures below 90 K which are erased by biasing above the threshold field for nonlinear conductivity. We have characterized the density of states for the metastable CDW configuration through measurements of u(). Further, we observe in bias-dependent dielectric measurements the effects of long-lived metastable CDW states in the pinned regime over the whole temperature range, as well as very long relaxation times in the sliding state at low temperatures.