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Radiation-Induced Transient Currents in Films of Poly(arylene ether ketone) Including Phthalide Moiety//Polymers, doi: 10.3390/polym12010013
Abstract: Electrical properties of the thin films of poly(arylene ether ketone) copolymers (co-PAEKs)
with the fraction of phthalide-containing units of 3, 5 and 50 mol% in the main chain were
investigated by using radiation induced conductivity (RIC) measurements. Transient current
signals and current-voltage (I-V) characteristics were obtained under exposing 20÷25 thick films of
the co-PAEKs to monoenergetic electron pulses of the energy ranged from 3 to 50 keV in the electric
field ranged from 5 to 40 V/μm. The Rose-Fowler-Vaisberg semi-empirical model based on a
multiple trapping formalism was used for an analysis of the RIC data and the parameters of the
highly dispersive charge carrier transport were evaluated. The analysis revealed that charge carriers
moved in isolation from each other and the applied electric fields were below the threshold field
triggering the switching effect (a reversible high-to-low resistivity transition) in the co-PAEK films.
It was also found that the co-PAEK films due to the super-linear I-V characteristics are highly
resistant to electrostatic discharges arising from the effects of ionizing radiation. This property is
important for the development of protective coatings for electronic devices.