During thelastthreedecadesmanynewaswellasextendedclassesoforganic andinorganicmaterials, someofwhichbeingofhybridtype, havebeensynthe- sized. Amongthemarethosethecontributorsofthisbookaredealingwith. In parallel to this, new technologies have been developed such as active matrix addressed liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCD), new types of sensors like ther- mographic sheets employed in science, industry and medicine, organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), SQUIDs etc. At the same time the techniques for characterizing both the materials and technological products have become very fast and highly precise. For example, today measuring a dielectric spec- trum over a broadfrequency rangewith a high density of experimentalpoints per decade requires a few minutes time, sometimes just a few seconds, but before it would have taken weeks or even months. Nowadays one is able to create an enormous amount of data points but there is a real problem how to reach the real message, the truth? Toanswersuchquestions, aftersomeyearsofaverye?cientandsuccessful bilateral co-operation between our two research groups in Darmstadt and in Cracow, in the early 1990s an idea appeared to discuss all such intriguing problems with our colleagues and friends from many countries in the friendly atmosphere of the nice vacation resort of Zakopane in the Tatra Mountains. Therefore our ?rst workshop was organized there in 1993 and repeated at the same place in 1995 and 2000, interchanged with Darmstadt in 1998 and ?nally again in 2002. These kinds of meetings were well received as shown by the participation of the leading scientists in the ?eld of materials science and by graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from all over the world.
The authors describe the electric, magnetic and other relaxational processes in a wide spectrum of materials: liquid crystals, molecular magnets, polymers, high-Tc superconductors and glasses. The book summarizes the phenomenological fundamentals and the experimental methods used. A detailed description of molecular and collective dynamics in the broad range of liquid crystals is presented. Magnetic systems, high-Tc superconductors, polymers and glasses are an important subject of matter. It is shown that the researchers working on relaxation processes in different fields of materials sciences are dealing with the same physical fundamentals, but are sometimes using slightly different terms. The book is addressed to scientists, engineers, graduate and undergraduate students, experimentalists and theorists in physics, chemistry, materials sciences and electronic engineering. Many internationally well known experts contribute to it.
