Electrical properties of polythylene Langmuir-Blodgett films: preparation and electrical breakdown

Polyethylene films have been successfully prepared by the Langmuir-Blodgett technique. One deposition layer thickness was determined to be 3 nm using contact mode in the AFM method, but films were very fiat from the AFM observation. Capacitance of metal-polyethylene-metal junctions was inversely proportional to the number of deposition layers, indicating that the deposition went quite well. Using surface potential measurement, it was concluded that PE films were positively charged due to displacement of electrons from PE to metals, without applying external electric field. Electrical breakdown voltage was also examined. We could obtain very important information on the electrostatic phenomena of PE ultrathin films observed at the film-metal interface.