Analysis of the piezo- and pyroelectric response of PVDF foils as fast particle detectors in pulsed supersonic jets

Abstract

We report the design and performance of a new, rugged, general-purpose particle detector consisting of a stretched foil of polyvinylidene difluoride. Several detectors have been built and evaluated for applications in pulsed supersonic jet experiments where, e.g., particle density shall be measured with high time resolution. The working principle is that a directed bunch of particles, moving in vacuum, collides with the sensitive detector area and generates an electric charge. This charge generation is due to both the piezo- and the pyroelectric effect and results in a very fast detector response. In our detailed analysis of the detected signal, the piezoelectric contribution is defined by the constitutive equations of piezoelectricity, which are used in combination with the concept of a driven damped circular membrane allowing to obtain an analytic solution. The pyroelectric contribution is described via the exchanged energy between the impinging particle pulse and the detector foil. Because both the piezo- and the pyroelectric effects can be exploited, additional information about the particle impact such as the coefficient of energy accommodation or the coefficient of restitution can be determined experimentally.