The impact of prolonged X-ray irradiation during X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurement was investigated on poly(vinylidene-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)) thin films. It was observed that prolonged X-ray irradiation can accelerate the crosslinking of P(VDF-TrFE) and diminish the ferroelectric phase. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) data indicate that the ferroelectric phase diminishes completely after 360 kJ of X-ray irradiation dose and it induces the paraelectric phase. In this work, the main emphasis was given to the optimization of the X-ray irradiation dose during XPS measurements to maintain the ferroelectric phase within the copolymer films. (C) 2012 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.