Differential Thermostimulated Discharge Current Method for Studying Electrets

The thermostimulated discharge current method (TSDC) is widely used for the study of charge storage mechanisms in electrets. A new discharged technique, called differential, which consists in discharging a charged sample through an otherwise identical but uncharged one, has been proposed by J.-P. Reboul and A. Toureille. In the present paper a new version of the differential thermostimulated discharge current method is advanced. In contrast to the differential technique described earlier, the measuring cell allows to realize typical differential technique. In this case the measuring system records the difference of the thermostimulated currents of two samples which have been preliminary charged (or thermally treated) under the same or different conditions. Samples of 0.85 mm thick polymethylmethacrylate are used to demonstrate an operation of the developed differential TSDC method.