Effect of Ar bombardment on the electrical and optical properties of low-density polyethylene films

The influence of low-energy Ar ion beam irradiation on both electrical and optical properties of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) films is presented. The polymer films were bombarded with 320 keV Ar ions with fuences up to 1×10¹⁵ cm^?2. Electrical properties of LDPE films were measured and the effect of ion bombardment on the DC conductivity, dielectric constant and loss was studied. Optically, the energy gap, the Urbach’s energy and the number of carbon atoms in a cluster were estimated for all polymer samples using the UV–Vis spectrophotometry technique. The obtained results showed slight enhancement in the conductivity and dielectric parameters due to the increase in ion fluence. Meanwhile, the energy gap and the Urbach’s energy values showed significant decrease by increasing the Ar ion fluence. It was found that the ion bombardment induced chain scission in the polymer chain causing some carbonization. An increase in the number of carbon atoms per cluster was also observed.