Control of the size of etchable ion tracks in PVDF; Irradiation in an oxygen atmosphere and with fullerene C

Kitamura, Akane; Yamaki, Tetsuya*; Yuri, Yosuke*; Koshikawa, Hiroshi*; Sawada, Shinichi*; Yuyama, Takahiro*; Usui, Aya ; Chiba, Atsuya*

Poly(vinylidene-fluoride) (PVDF) film is suitable for investigation of the size of etchable ion tracks because we can clearly judge the finish of the track etching and the surrounding bulk area remains due to the high chemical stability. Thereby we can measure the radius of ion tracks of each ion. In this study, we focused on two irradiation conditions for controlling the size of etchable ion tracks of PVDF films. One was irradiation in an oxygen atmosphere and the other was a fullerene (C) cluster beam irradiation. SEM observation showed that the size of pores became larger by irradiation in an oxygen atmosphere. It was found that the oxidation of ion tracks widened the size of etchable ion tracks. The C irradiation caused larger etchable tracks on the PVDF surface. The result could represent the effect of local and simultaneous collisions by the swift aggregated ions.