ELECTRET

An electret can be considered a piece of dielectric material with the presence

of quasi-permanent real charges on the surface or in the bulk of the material,
or frozen-in aligned dipoles in the bulk. An electret behaves like a battery or
acts as an electrical counterpart of a permanent magnet. A piece of poled
ferroelectric material can also be an electret. The term quasi-permanent
implies that the amount of charges stored in the material does not remain
the same permanently, but decays very slowly depending on the situation,
and the decay time is normally much longer than the time period over which
the electret is in use.

An electret is a stable dielectric material with a permanently-embedded

static electric charge (which, due to the high resistance of the material, will
not decay for hundreds of years). The name comes from electrostatic and
magnet; drawing analogy to the formation of a magnet by alignment of
magnetic domains in a piece of iron. Electrets are commonly made by first
melting a suitable dielectric material such as a plastic or wax that contains
polar molecules, and then allowing it to re-solidify in a powerful electrostatic
field. The polar molecules of the dielectric align themselves to the direction
of the electrostatic field, producing a permanent electrostatic 'bias'.

There are two types of electrets:

 Real-charge electrets which contain excess charge of one or both

polarities, either
 on the dielectric's surfaces (a surface charge)
 within the dielectric's volume (a space charge)
 Oriented-dipole electrets contain oriented (aligned)
dipoles. Ferroelectric materials are one variant of these.

Cellular space charge electrets with internal bipolar charges at the voids
provide a new class of electret materials, that mimic ferroelectrics, hence
they are known as ferroelectret. Ferroelectrets display
strong piezoelectricity, comparable to ceramic piezoelectric materials.

Some dielectric materials are capable of acting both ways.

Electret materials

Electret materials are quite common in nature. Quartz and other forms of
silicon dioxide, for example, are naturally occurring electrets. Today, most
electrets are made from synthetic polymers,
e.g. fluoropolymers, polypropylene, polyethyleneterephthalate, etc. Real-
charge electrets contain either positive or negative excess charges or both,
while oriented-dipole electrets contain oriented dipoles. The quasi-
permanent internal or external electric fields created by electrets can be
exploited in various applications.

Preparation

Bulk electrets can be prepared by cooling a suitable dielectric material within

a strong electric field, after heating it above its melting temperature. The
field repositions the charge carriers or aligns the dipoles within the material.
When the material cools, solidification freezesthem in position. Materials
used for electrets are usually waxes, polymers or resins. One of the earliest
recipes consists of 45% carnauba wax, 45% white rosin, and 10%
white beeswax, melted, mixed together, and left to cool in a static electric
field of several kilovolts/cm.

Electrets can also be manufactured by embedding excess negative charge

within a dielectric using a particle accelerator, or by stranding charges on, or
near, the surface using high voltage corona discharges, a process
called corona charging. Excess charge within an electret decays
exponentially. The decay constant is a function of the material's
relative dielectric constant and its bulk resistivity. Materials with extremely
high resistivity, such as Teflon, may retain excess charge for many hundreds
of years. Most commercially produced electrets are based
on fluoropolymers (e.g. amorphous Teflon) machined to thin films.

Applications:
Electret materials have recently found commercial and technical interest. For
example, they are used in electret microphones and in copy machines. They
are also used in some types of air filters, for electrostatic collection of dust
particles, and in electret ion chambers for measuring ionizing
radiation or radon.