Thermally stimulated processes in organic polymers

Emerging trends in the interpretation of measurements of thermally stimulated conductivity, luminescence, and depolarization in organic polymers are reviewed, in the context of charge trapping and transport. Particular attention is given to the following: (1) the advantage of making simultaneous measurements on the same sample; (2) the determination of the forms of quasicontinuous distributions of trap activation energies; and (3) the use of thermally stimulated processes to monitor aging (degradation) of polymeric insulants in power distribution cables and hence estimate their economic service lifetimes.<>