Document Type
Article
Journal/Book Title/Conference
IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science
Author ORCID Identifier
Tyler Heggenes https://orcid.org/0009-0002-3570-3163
JR Dennison https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5504-3353
Publisher
IEEE
Publication Date
10-8-2025
Journal Article Version
Version of Record
First Page
1
Last Page
11
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Abstract
Radiation induced conductivity (RIC) can impact charge dissipation within highly insulating materials used in spacecraft in harsh space plasma environments. Previous Utah State University (USU) research analyzed only the equilibrium portions of an extensive RIC database for polymeric materials, including Kapton HN (Trademark). This confirmed that equilibrium RIC follows a standard theoretical model that is temperature and dose rate dependent. The current study provides a new analysis of RIC’s time-dependent behavior of the Kapton HN data from this database. With the onset of radiation, the material response is characterized by an exponential increase in conductivity, while a hyperbolic inverse time-dependent decline characterizes the decay of delayed RIC. A model with dual fast and slow time constants, representing the capture and release of charges from shallow and deep traps, respectively, produces the best fits to time-dependent RIC from successive dosing cycles at fixed temperatures. This dual-defect model provides information about the dose rate and temperature dependence of material properties in response to dynamic (time-dependent) RIC and helps infer relative trap state distributions and occupancy of the material.
Recommended Citation
T. Heggenes, J. R. Whiteley, J. Corbridge Gillespie and J. R. Dennison, "Time-Dependent Radiation Induced Conductivity of Polyimide: Effects of Dose Rate and Temperature on Dynamic RIC," in IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, doi: 10.1109/TPS.2025.3615922.