Electric field induced memory and aging effects in pure solid N₂

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We report combined high sensitivity dielectric constant and heat capacity measurements of pure solid N₂ in the presence of a small external ac electric field in the audio frequency range. We have observed strong field induced aging and memory effects which show that field cooled samples may be prepared in a variety of metastable states leading to a free energy landscape with experimentally ``tunable'' barriers, and tunneling between these states may occur within laboratory time scales.