Effects of Humidity and Domain Polarity on Retention Loss in Ferroelectric P(VDF-TrFE) Thin Films

We investigate over a period of a 500 hours the effect of relative humidity (RH) on the retention loss in ferroelectric P(VDF-TrFE) thin films by using piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM). When the copolymer films are exposed to more water molecules, more domain reversal is observed, especially in upward domains. Interestingly, the retention loss behavior based on a stretched exponential model can be distinctly classified depending on the RH conditions. We conjecture that the absorption and the desorption of water molecules in the P(VDF-TrFE) polymers have a great influence on the reversal of ferroelectric domains.