Modification of Optical, Electronic and Microstructural Properties of PET by 150 keV Cs+ Irradiation

Abstract

Thick (0.125 mm) sheet samples of PET were irradiated with 150 keV Cs+ ion beam with fluences in the range from 10^13 cm^-2 up to 10^16 cm^-2). Raman and UV-VIS spectroscopy measurements shown destruction of numerous bonds within the polymer – this effect intensifies with fluence. Raman spectroscopy shows the presence of amorphous graphitelike structures as the broad G band appears in the collected spectrum. The analysis of absorbance spectra also confirms formation of numerous carbon clusters leading to a formation of vast conducting structures in the modified layer of the polymer. One can observe the decrease of optical bandgap from 3.85 eV (typical for pristine PET) to 1.05 eV for the sample implanted with the highest fluence, the effect is weaker than for lighter alkali metal ions. The estimated average number of C atom in a clusters reaches in such case values close to 1100. The changes in the polymer structure lead to intense reduction of electrical sheet resistivity of the modified samples by ~ 8 orders of magnitude in the case of severely modified sample. The dependence of resistivity on temperature has also been measured. The plots of ln(σ) vs 1/T show that band conductivity or nearest neighbor hopping between conducting structures prevail in the considered case