Brillouin and Raman Scattering Studies of Single-Crystal-Texture Polyethylene

Single-crystal-texture polyethylene has been made from linear low-density polyethylene by solid-state extrusion followed by high-pressure annealing. X-ray studies show the material to have the following orientation functions: fc(200) = 0.983, fc(020) = 0.976, and fc(002) = 0.989. The material is semicrystalline with a sheet structure. Raman studies show the lamellar thickness to be distributed about a 92-A maximum. Brillouin scattering studies confirm the single-crystal texture of the material. Longitudinal and transverse modes could be studied with both high precision and polarization discrimination for the first time. © 1985, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.