Presentation of experimental results on relaxation in the time domain

In experiments on dielectric relaxation, useful information can be obtained not only from the relaxation function but also from the product of the depolarization current and the time. It is shown that this product must have a maximum, and the time (Formula presented) of this maximum is expected to have physical significance. In particular, if the relaxation function is described by a stretched exponential function, (Formula presented) then (Formula presented) and a comparison between (Formula presented) and the value of (Formula presented) derived from fitting the relaxation function to a stretched exponential function provides an important test of how well this function actually fits the experimental results. Such a presentation of the data is also useful, for instance, in the analysis of experiments on photoluminescence and on the decay of photocurrents in amorphous semiconductors.