Optical properties birefringence

The results of studying the optical properties (birefringence, IR and UV dichroism), x-ray, spectroscopy, NMR, and EPR (with specially introduced paramagnetic probes) methods are usually used for estimating the order parameter [40]. The so-called guest-host effect is a widely used method (cf. Chapter 8). 

Optical properties also provide useful stmcture information about the fiber. The orientation of the molecular chains of a fiber can be estimated from differences in the refractive indexes measured with the optical microscope, using light polarized in the parallel and perpendicular directions relative to the fiber axis (46,47). The difference of the principal refractive indexes is called the birefringence, which is illustrated with typical fiber examples as foUows. Birefringence is used to monitor the orientation of nylon filament in melt spinning (48). 

Optical Properties. When light falls on an object, it is either partially absorbed, reflected, or transmitted. The behavior of the object as it relates to each of these three possibiUties determines visual appearance. Optical properties of fibers give useful information about the fiber stmcture refractive indexes correlate well with fiber crystalline and molecular orientation and birefringence gives a measure of the degree of anisotropy of the fiber. 

Optical properties of fibers are measured by light microscopy methods. ASTM D276 describes the procedure for fiber identification using refractive indexes and birefringence. Other methods for determining fiber optical properties have been discussed (3,38—44). However, different methods of determining optical properties may give different results (42). 

Anisotropic behaviour is also exhibited in optical properties and orientation effects can be observed and to some extent measured by birefringence methods. In such oriented materials the molecules are in effect frozen in an unstable state and they will normally endeavour to take up a more coiled conformation due to rotation about the single bonds. If an oriented sample is heated up the molecules will start to coil as soon as they possess sufficient energy and the mass will often distort. Because of this oriented materials usually have a lower heat distortion temperature than non-oriented polymers. 

An example of a relevant optical property is the birefringence of a deformed polymer network [246]. This strain-induced birefringence can be used to characterize segmental orientation, both Gaussian and non-Gaussian elasticity, and to obtain new insights into the network chain orientation (see Chapter 8) necessary for strain-induced crystallization [4,16,85,247,248]. 

However, if an LC substance is heated, it will show more than one melting point. Thus, liquid crystals are substances that exhibit a phase of matter that has properties between those of a conventional liquid and a solid crystal. For instance, an LC may flow like a liquid but have the molecules in the liquid arranged and/or oriented in a crystal-like way. There are many different types of LC phases that can be distinguished based on their different optical properties (such as birefringence). When viewed under a microscope using a polarized light source, different liquid crystal phases will appear to have a distinct texture. Each patch in the texture corresponds to a domain where the LC molecules are oriented in a different direction. Within a domain, however, the molecules are well ordered. Liquid crystal materials may not always be in an LC phase (just as water is not always in the liquid phase it may also be found in the solid or gas phase). 

Of the three physical properties covered in this chapter, optical properties have the least importance in composite and biological applications. This is not to say that there are no applications of optical properties in composites or biological materials. There are indeed, such as the use of birefringence in the analysis of stress distribution and fiber breakage in fiber-matrix composites [14] and in the development of materials for ophthalmic implants such as intraocular devices [15]. These topics are beyond the scope of this text, however, even as optional information, and introduce no new concepts from a material property standpoint. There are many interesting articles and... 

Three optical properties (optical loss, refractive index, and birefringence) are very important when applying optical polyimides to optical components. These... 

Transparency, gloss, color, refractive index, and reflectance are the properties normally associated with aesthetics of plastic materials. In some areas, changes in optical properties, increases in haze after abrasion testing (285), color differences after weathering, and birefringence analysis of residual stress within a transparent part (286) are all used to measure the effects of applied stresses. Measurements of color, gloss, refractive index, and haze apply to many products beyond plastics and use similar techniques. Reference should be made to this general topic for detailed information (see Color). 

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