Density of states and vibrational modes of PDMS studied by terahertz time-domain spectroscopy

Using time-domain spectroscopy (TDS), we performed high-precision spectroscopic measurements of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) in the terahertz domain. We investigated the influence of crosslinking on the terahertz absorption and refractive index, and modeled the data with vibrational density of states and coupling between photons and vibrational modes of the polymer molecules. We also investigated the influence of the temperature on PDMS, and observed the glass transition temperature, as well as the cold crystallization peak and the melting zone.

Graphical abstractDownload high-res image (31KB)Download full-size imageResearch highlights► Terahertz spectroscopy of PDMS reveals glass transition. ► Reduced absorption is extracted. ► Density of states of PDMS are analyzed.