Thermal DLTS study of the defect states of PELLE polymer

Abstract The thermal deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) technique was applied to study the defect states and their activation energies of a polyurethane-based polymer network (PELLE) insulator. It was demonstrated that decomposition analysis of exponential transients allows a more accurate determination of the activation energy of the defective states. Two groups of activation energies for the PELLE polymer were observed, ranging from 0.49 eV to 1.9 eV and − 7.84 eV to − 2.53 eV, which were assigned to changes in the bond properties in the hard and soft segments of the studied polymer, respectively. The applicability of the DLTS method for the characterization of polymers was demonstrated. It was shown that the DLTS technique could contribute to a more comprehensive picture of the properties of polymers.