The Curie-Weiss behavior of heat capacity and dielectric constant in the incommensurate phase of K₂ZnCl₄

The Curie-Weiss behavior of heat capacity and dielectric constant was observed in the incommensurate phase of K2ZnCl4, as temperature is lowered toward the incommensurate-commensurate phase transition. The exponents obtained from the dielectric and heat capacity measurements were gamma = 1.01 + 0.05 and alpha = 0.99 + 0.05, respectively. The present results support the view on the evolution of the incommensurate phase that the incommensurate phase consists of regularly placed discommensurations, and the distance between discommensurations increases and eventually a transition to the commensurate phase occurs as temperature is lowered.