Comparative surface dynamics of amorphous and semicrystalline polymer films

The surface dynamics of amorphous and semicrystalline polymer films have been measured using helium atom scattering. Time-of-flight data were collected to resolve the elastic and inelastic scattering components in the diffuse scattering of neutral helium atoms from the surface of a thin poly(ethylene terephthalate) film. Debye-Waller attenuation was observed for both the amorphous and semicrystalline phases of the polymer by recording the decay of elastically scattered helium atoms with increasing surface temperature. Thermal attenuation measurements in the specular scattering geometry yielded perpendicular mean-square displacements of 2.7 center dot 10(-4) angstrom(2) K-1 and 3.1 center dot 10(-4) angstrom(2) K-1 for the amorphous and semicrystalline surfaces, respectively. The semicrystalline surface was consistently similar to 15% softer than the amorphous across a variety of perpendicular momentum transfers. The Debye-Waller factors were also measured at off-specular angles to characterize the parallel mean-square displacements, which were found to increase by an order of magnitude over the perpendicular mean-square displacements for both surfaces. In contrast to the perpendicular motion, the semicrystalline state was similar to 25% stiffer than the amorphous phase in the surface plane. These results were uniquely accessed through low-energy neutral helium atom scattering due to the highly surface-sensitive and nonperturbative nature of these interactions. The goal of tailoring the chemical and physical properties of complex advanced materials requires an improved understanding of interfacial dynamics, information that is obtainable through atomic beam scattering methods.