Experimental studies on the direct flexoelectric effect in α-phase polyvinylidene fluoride films

We report observation of the giant direct flexoelectric effect in alpha-phase polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) films. This unexpected phenomenon was detected in the alpha-phase PVDF film undergoing elastic tensile stretching. Our results have shown that the physical mechanism behind the flexoelectricity in polymers might be more complicated than the one proposed for solid crystalline dielectrics. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3599520]