Ferroelectric Properties of Polymer-Semiconductor Hybrid Material or Composite under Optical Excitation.

Polymer-semiconductor hybrid materials or composites have been investigated with respect to their microstructure, optical, photoconductive, and ferroelectric properties. For this purpose, either CdSe quantum dots or (Cd:Zn)S microparticles were dispersed in poly(vinylidenefluoride-trifluoroethylene) solution and hot pressed to films. In both material systems, the electrical conductivity and the polarization behavior could be controlled by the intensity of the optical excitation. The simultaneous high optical transparency of the CdSe quantum-dot-based hybrid materials makes them particularly interesting for applications in the field of flexible, high-resolution sensors.

Modulating Magnetism in Ferroelectric Polymer-Gated Perovskite Manganite Films with Moderate Gate Pulse Chains.

Most previous attempts on achieving electric-field manipulation of ferromagnetism in complex oxides, such as La0.66Sr0.33MnO3 (LSMO), are based on electrostatically induced charge carrier changes through high-k dielectrics or ferroelectrics. Here, the use of a ferroelectric copolymer, polyvinylidene fluoride with trifluoroethylene [P(VDF-TrFE)], as a gate dielectric to successfully modulate the ferromagnetism of the LSMO thin film in a field-effect device geometry is demonstrated. Specifically, through the application of low-voltage pulse chains inadequate to switch the electric dipoles of the copolymer, enhanced tunability of the oxide magnetic response is obtained, compared to that induced by ferroelectric polarization. Such observations have been attributed to electric field-induced oxygen vacancy accumulation/depletion in the LSMO layer upon the application of pulse chains, which is supported by surface-sensitive-characterization techniques, including X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism. These techniques not only unveil the electrochemical nature of the mechanism but also establish a direct correlation between the oxygen vacancies created and subsequent changes to the valence states of Mn ions in LSMO. These demonstrations based on the pulsing strategy can be a viable route equally applicable to other functional oxides for the construction of electric field-controlled magnetic devices.

Polarization Properties and Polarization Depth Profiles of (Cd:Zn)S/P(VDF-TrFE) Composite Films in Dependence of Optical Excitation.

The influence of optical excitation intensity on the electrical, ferroelectric and pyroelectric properties of ferroelectric-semiconductor-composites was investigated. For this purpose, composite thin films consisting of poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) and 10 vol % (Cd:Zn)S particles with a thickness of 34 µm were fabricated. The samples were used to measure the absolute pyrocoefficient and to determine the relative pyroelectric depth profile using Laser Intensity Modulated Method. It was shown that a polarization of the samples without an optical excitation at the utilized relatively small peak-to-peak voltages could not be verified by the Sawyer⁻Tower circuit and the measurement setup of the pyroelectric coefficient, respectively. Both remanent polarization and pyroelectric coefficients increased with increasing optical excitation intensity during poling as well as increasing peak-to-peak voltage. The pyrocoefficient shows a temporal decay in the first hours after poling. The specific heat and thermal conductivity or the thermal diffusivity are required for the calibration of the pyroelectric depth profile. Rule of mixture and photo-acoustic investigations proved that the thermal properties of the utilized composites do not differ significantly from those of the pristine polymer. Based on the pyroelectric depth profile which is proportional to the polarization profile, the existing "three phase model" has been extended to generate a replacement circuit diagram, explaining the local polarization due to the optical excitation dependency for both local resistivity and local field strength.

Optimized pyroelectric properties of 0-3 composites of PZT particles in polyurethane doped with lithium perchlorate.

A substantial improvement in the performance of pyroelectric 0-3 composites of ceramic particles in a polymer matrix has been achieved by doping the polymer matrix material. Readily prepared and polarized films with various volume fractions of lead zirconate-titanate (PZT) particles in polyurethane have been doped in a solution of lithium perchlorate in acetone to increase the conductivity. With an appropriate conductivity, the dielectric permittivities of the ceramic particles and the polymer matrix become matched, resulting in an improvement of the pyroelectric coefficient from about 6 microC/(m(2)K) to about 50 microC/(m(2)K). The experimental results are explained by theoretical predictions.

Effect of (Cd:Zn)S Particle Concentration and Photoexcitation on the Electrical and Ferroelectric Properties of (Cd:Zn)S/P(VDF-TrFE) Composite Films.

The influence of semiconductor particle concentration and photoexcitation on the electrical and ferroelectric properties of ferroelectric-semiconductor-composites was investigated. For this purpose, 32 µm thin films of poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) with (Cd:Zn)S particle concentrations of between 0 and 20 vol % were fabricated and characterized by scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and optical spectroscopy. It was shown that the particle concentration has only a negligible influence on the molecular structure of the polymer but strongly determines the optical properties of the composite. For (Cd:Zn)S particle concentrations below 20 vol %, the I-V characteristics of the composites is only marginally affected by the particle concentration and the optical excitation of the composite material. On the contrary, a strong influence of both parameters on the ferro- and pyroelectric properties of the composite films was observed. For particle fractions that exhibit ferroelectric hysteresis, an increased remanent polarization and pyroelectric coefficient due to optical excitation was obtained. A theoretical approach that is based on a "three phase model" of the internal structure was developed to explain the observed results.