Abstract
Direct experimental insights into the structural and dynamical mechanisms for ferroelectric β to paraelectric α phase transition in a poled PVDF-TrFE copolymer is obtained from in situ x-ray diffraction and quasielastic neutron scattering measurements at high temperatures. It is observed that the β-to-α phase transition proceeds through two energetically distinct processes, which are identified here as the nucleation and growth of an intermediate γ phase with random skew linkages followed by a γ-to-α transition. The two energetically distinct microscopic processes can explain the stages of evolution for β-to-α phase transition observed from heat flow measurements.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 174103 |
Journal | Physical Review B |
Volume | 96 |
Issue number | 17 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 3 2017 |
Funding
A.P. gratefully acknowledges funding support from CityU (Projects No. 7200514 and No. 9610377). The experiments conducted at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), in Oak Ridge National Laboratory was supported by the Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of Basis Energy Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy. S.T.M. thanks his Inamori Professorship which supported the HTXRD work at Alfred University. A.P. gratefully acknowledges technical assistance from Daniel Yau, Tak Fu Hung, and Tit Wah Chan.