Electron-beam charging of polyethylene terephthalate films

Abstract

An analysis is presented of the current flowing in an insulating film during irradiation by a non-penetrating electron beam. It is shown that such a beam can be used to populate traps in the insulator. Experiments are described in which this technique is used to populate traps in films of polyethylene terephthalate with electrons. The trapped charge is subsequently released by heating and from the resulting TSC spectra the existence of three distinct trapping levels is deduced whose depths are in good agreement with those reported by other workers.