Polarization profiles of electron-beam polarized VDF-TrFE copolymer films

Abstract

In order to understand more clearly the poling mechanism in ferroelectric polymers, the PPS-technique was applied to copolymer films of vinylidenefluoride with trifluoroethylene P(VDF-TrFE), poled by a focused monoenergetic electron beam. Charges were injected in a well-defined way into the polymer films and thus provided information on the influence of externally introduced electrical charges on the poling process in ferroelectric polymers. The electron beam poling of P(VDF-TrFE) films is shown to produce very high values of polarization up to 180 mC/m2, which exceeds those produced in β-PVDF by electron irradiation by a factor of three. The distribution of the polarization across the film thickness is rather asymmetric, especially for samples irradiated with 20- and 30-KeV electrons. This may be caused by the rising electrical conductivity in samples with increasing electron energy. The annealing of the copolymer films before the poling procedure leads to a systematic increase of the polarization, with T a having its steepest rise around Tc.