Dielectric Response and Conformational Disorder in Polymer Relaxors

Abstract

Ferroelectric copolymers of vinylidene fluoride and trifluoroethylene irradiated with fast electrons were found to exhibit dispersive dielectric response, characteristic of ferroelectric relaxors and giant electrostriction. Here we report the results of our ESR, IR and Raman spectroscopy studies of radiation damage to the copolymers and relate the effects to the conformational disorder and dispersive dielectric response.

Keywords:

• Polymer relaxors
• P(VDF/TrFE) copolymers
• radiation damage
• ESR
• IR and Raman spectroscopy
• dielectric response