Power-law transient charge transport in a nonpolar liquid

Transient current measurements in response to a voltage step can reveal a lot of information about the nature, the origin, and the properties of electrically charged species in nonpolar media. In situations where the influence of the charges on the electric field can be neglected, interpretation is straightforward. However, this condition is not fulfilled in many applications. This work provides an approximate analytical description, illustrated by measurements and simulations, for cases in which the contribution of the charge density to the electric field is comparable in magnitude to the contribution of the applied voltage. (C) 2007 American Institute of Physics.