Mechanical characteristics of SiO2 electrets

1μm SiOlayer was thermally grown on silicon wafer. Negative and positive charging of SiO2 layer was performed by means of corona method at room temperature. By controlling grid voltage, we have obtained uniformly charged SiO2 with surface potential from -500 to +200 V. With certain electric field, the electrostatic force between charged SiO2 is investigated. Experimental results indicate that attraction not only exists between charged SiO2 with different polarity, but also exists between charged SiO2 with the same polarity, and no repulsion has been observed. The attractive force is related to both surface potential difference of charged SiO2 and the uniformity of the electric field. Based on the experiment, the attractive force is supposed to be caused by polarization when two charged SiO2 wafers are close.