Studies of proton irradiated 0.9PMN-0.1PT/P(VDF-TrFE) 0-3 composites

Abstract

Polyvinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene [P(VDF-TrFE) 70/30 mol%] copolymer can be transformed from a ferroelectric to a relaxor material after proton irradiation. The phase transition peak broadens and shifts towards lower temperature as the measurement frequency decreases. In the present study, 0-3 composites are fabricated by incorporating 0-9Pb(Mg/sub 1/3/Nb/sub 2/3/)O/sub 3/-0.1PbTiO/sub 3/ ceramic powder into a P(VDF-TrFE) 70/30 mol% copolymer matrix. 0.9PMN-0.1PT ceramic is a relaxor ferroelectric with high dielectric permittivity. It was found that the relative permittivity of PMN-PT/P(VDF-TrFE) 0-3 composite increases with increasing ceramic volume fraction. Composites with 0.3 and 0.4 volume fraction of 0.9PMN-0.1PT were subjected to proton irradiation. With a 80 Mrad (4.76 /spl times/ 10/sup 13/ ions/cm/sup 2/) proton dosage, the relative permittivity of the 0.4 volume fraction 0-3 composites can go up to 130 near room temperature (at 1 kHz).