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

The 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 I 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. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.