Work function, polymers, specimen

A serious problem encountered in ion beam methods of analysis is that of specimen charging. Impact of energetic positive ions causes development of a positive charge on the surface of an insulator. This effect is especially prevalent in polymers, because they are usually excellent insulators. Table VII lists work functions for some typical polymers. It is questionable whether the term work function should be used for polymers, but the high value of these numbers shows the reason for the charging exhibited by polymers. 

The information obtained in Morey s work was very closely similar to that obtainable from measurements of the absorption dichroism of dye molecules dispersed in the polymer or of the infra-red dichroism of the polymer itself (see Chapter 4). In dichroism experiments the absorption of polarised light is measured as a function of the angle between the electric vector of the incident light and a chosen axis in the specimen and information is obtained about cos 6, where 0 is the angle between the chosen axis and the absorption axis of a dye molecule. Nishijima et al pointed out that if polarised exciting light is used in the fluorescence... 

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