Frequency dependence of conductivity in TaS3 at helium temperatures

The conductivity and dielectric constant epsilon' of quasi-one-dimensional orthorhombic TaS3 crystals are measured in the frequency range 3 to 105 Hz and temperature range 4.2 to 40 K. Below 20 K the frequency-dependent component of conductivity is found to follow a σ/sub ac/ proportional to ω/sup s/ law (s approximately 0.8) and increase linearly with temperature; above 20 K no temperature dependence is found, while the frequency dependence is retained. The conductivity of samples with some disorder is shown to be due to variable range hopping near the chemical potential level. The value of epsilon' is found to increase at lower frequencies and higher temperatures. High values of the dielectric constant (approximately 106) may be due to polarization of the pinned charge density wave. (author)