Comparison of electroluminescence phenomenon in LDPE, PET and PEN under the application of high electrical stress

When a solid-state material is subjected to a high electrical field stress, an emission of light known as electroluminescence (EL), will occur. This phenomenon has been used extensively to study charge injection and recombination mechanisms at the metal-polymer interface and as a probe to study early electrical ageing in insulating polymers. Most of the EL studies undertaken nowadays deal with measurements on polyethylene since this material is widely used in high voltage cable applications. Therefore this paper focuses on the EL measurements made on additive-free low-density polyethylene (LDPE) film. In addition to this, the voltage dependence and spectral characteristics of EL will be compared with identical measurements made on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) films; since EL phenomenon for these materials is relatively better characterized. A comparison of measured EL characteristics between these three different types of polymer will be discussed.