Investigation of poling field effects on PVDF pyroelectric detectors: Photoacoustic thermal diffusivity measurements

The influence of poling fields on the electrical and thermal properties of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) pyroelectric detectors is discussed. It is shown that both the dielectric constant and the thermal diffusivity exhibit a monotonically increasing behavior with the poling field. The detectors were fabricated by solution casting of the PVDF films followed by thermal poling. It is concluded that the predominant crystal phase present in our films is the γ-form. Except for the dielectric breakdown field, all the electrical and thermal properties of these films were found to be in good agreement with the commercially available ones. The thermal diffusivity was measured using the so-called open photoacoustic cell method.