Distribution of polarisation energy in non-polar amorphous insulators

The authors have calculated numerically the distribution of polarisation energies for trapped charges in an amorphous matrix, either a polymer or an organic glass. The distribution is of order 1.5 eV wide and is skewed, having a significant tail at large energies. Despite the simplicity of the model, the authors argue that this is a reasonable estimate of the situation for the static fluctuations considered, and it may account for the wide distribution of trapping energies inferred from various experimental techniques.