The mechanical characteristics of polymer materials are of interest to the chemical industry. There are requirements for observation of changes of internal structure to stress. A number of samples under various stress conditions have provided interesting information upon analysis by microscopic birefringence measurement. In the present paper, we propose a birefringence measurement method for observation of the internal structure of polymer materials and analysis of the relationship between a given stress and the corresponding birefringence distribution. The proposed measurement system consists of a He-Ne laser, polarizers, a half-wave plate and a quarter-wave plate. The birefringence distributions of gelatin, such as the phase difference and azimuthal angle, are shown for the case of applied uniaxial and biaxial stress.

Date Published: 19 October 2006
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 6374, Optomechatronic Actuators, Manipulation, and Systems Control, 637407 (19 October 2006); doi: 10.1117/12.687428

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6374:
Optomechatronic Actuators, Manipulation, and Systems Control
Farrokh Janabi-Sharifi; Yukitoshi Otani, Editor(s)