Anomalous photovoltaic effects in polyethylene films incorporated with silicon

The possibility of using polymer or organic films for photovoltaic or electret devices has been investigated by many investigators(1–5). In general, the open-circuit photovoltage in photovoltaic devices is much smaller than the potential difference across the energy gap of the materials if the mechanism responsible for the photovoltaic effects is due either to Schottky barrier, or to p-n junction or p-i-n structure. However, some materials in thin film form exhibit a high open-circuit photovoltage when exposed to intense light and in some cases the photovoltage can be much large than the potential difference across the energy gap(6). In the studies of photoelectric effects in polymers most work is concentrated on photo-conduction, and comparatively little has been reported on photovoltaic effects. Recently we have observed some anomalous photoelectric phenomena in polyethylene films without and with silicon incorporation. The purpose of this paper is to report these new results.