Piezoelectric and optical response of uniaxially stretched (VDF/TrFE) (75/25) copolymer films

Abstract

The phase diagram of the poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluorethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)) copolymer system shows for VDF contents of 50...85 mol% a ferroelectric (FE)-paraelectric (PE) phase transition below melting temperature. Investigations on P(VDF-TrFE) 75/25 samples revealed a slight anisotropic behaviour, which leads to a strongly anisotropic stretching effect both on the phase transition and on the amount and nature of the FE phase in samples subjected to mechanical stretching along the main directions of the film. In this work, both the refractive index n1,2 and the piezoelectric coefficient d33 of mechanically stretched P(VDF-TrFE) have been measured for samples with different levels of permanent deformation. These parameters are found to reflect the anisotropy of the permanently deformed samples. The stretching effect is most pronounced (n1,2) or limited (d33) to the vicinity of the yielding point of the material. Above the yielding point, almost the piezoelectric d33 coefficient of the non-deformed sample is observed for samples with large permanent deformation.