Polarization fatigue in ferroelectric vinylidene fluoride and trifluoroethylene copolymer films

In this letter polarization fatigue in ferroelectric polymers has been reported. Experimental results indicate that the driving voltages with lower frequency and higher amplitude should correspond to higher fatigue rates. A universal scaling behavior with N/f, where N is the number of switching cycles and f is the frequency, is found in the frequency dependence of polarization fatigue. The profile of driving voltages is also found to affect the fatigue behavior. It is believed that the trapped charges, injected from electrodes into films, should make the major contribution to polarization fatigue. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.