Investigation of the optical anisotropy of PET and PEN films by VIS-FUV to IR spectroscopic ellipsometry

In the last years, a significant amount of research is being performed in the field of polymer research for novel applications, such as flexible electronic devices, photovoltaic cells, high performance optics, data storage, etc. Toward this direction, in this work, the optical anisotropy of biaxially stretched poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and poly(ethylene naphthalate) (PEN) films has been extensively investigated. The optical properties of the films have been studied in terms of their optical, electronic and vibrational response, by Fourier transform IR spectroscopic ellipsometry (FTIRSE) (900-3500 cm−1) and Vis-fUV variable angle SE (1.5-6.5 eV) techniques. The films optical anisotropy is the result of the stretching procedure during their fabrication, which results to the structural rearrangement of the macromolecular chains parallel to the stretching direction and to a higher structural symmetry. During the SE spectra analysis, the films have been approximated as uniaxial materials with their optic axis parallel to the sample/ambient interface leading to the accurate determination of the principal components ɛ||(ω) and ɛ⊥(ω) of the dielectric function ɛ(ω). The detailed study of the electronic transitions has been performed in the Vis-fUV region, where the characteristic features corresponding to the n → π* electronic transitions of the carbonyl -CO group and the 1A1g → 1B1u transition due to the π → π* excitation of the π-electron structures have been identified and analysed. Furthermore, the FTIRSE spectra allowed the accurate identification and assignment of the features of ɛ(ω) to the vibrational modes of the various bonding structures characteristic of the PET and PEN macromolecular chains.