Disnan D., Hafner J., Benaglia S., Teuschel M., Schneider M., Garcia R., Schmid U.
Materials Research Letters
Ferroelectric polymer PVDF possesses different polymorphs. Solution-processed thin films crystallize mostly into the paraelectric a-phase. From a-PVDF, the electroactive phases ß-, <U+03B3>-, d-PVDF can be achieved by further treatments. For instance, d-PVDF, also known as a p-phase, can be obtained by electro-forming. In this work, we study the a-PVDF surface morphology using atomic force microscopy through a high-resolution image at the sub-nanometre scale. We go through the ferro- and piezoelectric properties of the electro-formed d-PVDF thin films and we present an electro-mechanical characterization in high-fields regime, for studying the non-linear electrostrain behaviour, and in low-fields regime, for extracting the piezoelectric coefficient. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
