Effects of electron irradiation on the ferroelectric properties of Langmuir-Blodgett copolymer films

Authors

Christina M. Othon, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
F.B. Bateman, Ionizing Radiation Division, Physics Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland
Stephen Ducharme, University of NebraskaFollow

Date of this Version

7-1-2005

Comments

Published by American Institute of Physics. J. Applied Physics 98, 014106.1-6 (2005). Permission to use. ©2005 American Institute of Physics. Journal home page = http://jap.aip.org/jap/.

Abstract

he effect of irradiation on the ferroelectric properties of Langmuir-Blodgett films of the copolymer poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) was investigated using 1-MeV electrons for doses from 0.16 to 1.10 MGy, where 1 Gray (Gy)=100 rad. Irradiation causes a systematic decrease in the phase-transition temperature, crystallinity, and spontaneous polarization of the films. The crystallinity and spontaneous polarization of the films decreased by amounts proportional to the dose, both tending toward zero near a dose of 1.30 MGy. The ferroelectric-paraelectric phase-transition temperature, however, was only reduced by about 12%, indicating that the primary effect of irradiation was to convert a crystalline ferroelectric material to a noncrystalline dielectric.