High field electrical conduction and breakdown in silicon incorporated polyethylene films

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Abstract
The current‐voltage (I‐V) characteristics of silicon‐incorporated polyethylene films fabricated by plasma polymerization have been measured at very high electric fields. The experimental results show that the electric conduction at high fields is due mainly to Fowler–Nordheim type tunneling injection of holes from the anode, and that the incorporation of silicon in polyethylene creates hole traps, thus suppressing the conduction current and enhancing the breakdown strength. The amount of positive space charge resulting from the hole trapping increases with increasing magnitude and duration of the applied field for a fixed silicon content, and increases with increasing silicon content for a fixed magnitude and duration of the applied field. This positive space charge tends to suppress the actual field at the hole injecting contact and to enhance the actual field at the electron injecting contact. For fields higher than a certain critical value, the rate of the current increase with field changes rapidly. This phenomenon is attributed to the onset of double injection. This means that the contribution of the electron current to the total current becomes significant due to the gradual enhancement of the field at the electron injecting contact by the large amount of accumulated positive space charge. It is concluded that silicon incorporated in polyethylene introduces new hole traps which in turn reduces the hole mobility and creates more positive trapped space charge. The overall effect would be to reduce the conduction current and to increase the breakdown strength of the polyethylene if a proper amount of silicon is incorporated in it.

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