Charge injection and charge separation as revealed by dynamic space charge measurement in poly(propylene-ethylene) copolymer films

Zheng, F.; Teyssedre, G.; Laurent, C.; Thomas, C.; Hoyos, M.; Zhang, Y.
Journal of Applied Physics 2008, 104, 094104

The time resolved fast pulsed electroacoustic method is used to investigate the space charge characteristics in an additive-free poly(propylene-ethylene) copolymer in film form. The 190 μm thick films, sandwiched by aluminum (at the lower electrode) and semiconducting material (at the upper electrode), were submitted to dc and low frequency ac stress for various durations at various temperatures. The results show that under dc stress, homocharges accumulate near the lower electrodes and heterocharge near the upper electrode at 25 °C whereas at 50 °C, besides the similar space charge behavior as at 25 °C in the vicinity of the electrodes, a region of symmetric separation of charges of opposite polarity is detected in the bulk. In addition, the time for the symmetric separation emergence under high voltage application depends on the field intensity, being shorter for higher field. Similar charging characteristics were also found at 50 °C under low frequency (5 mHz) square 50 kV/mm rms stress, with surprisingly periodical feature, while only injected charge was observed at 0.1 Hz square rms 50 kV/mm stress. Combining dc data with ac data, it is shown that the space charge build up results from two contributing processes: the space charge formation adjacent to the electrode is due to electronic carriers injection and drift, whereas the symmetric space charge in the bulk shows ionic transport characteristics, which can be well fitted with an ionic transport model.