Refractive anisotropy

The maximum value of An(V) is the index of refraction anisotropy, An = n II — n . Typically, An is about 0.2 to 0.3 This anisotropy is so large that, for monochromatic radiation, the transmitted light intensity undergoes many maxima and minima as the voltage increases above threshold. With white light, variable colors can be observed as a function of voltage. 

In this category are methods which can be applied to transparent solids, such as refractive index measurement, refraction anisotropy, and rotary dispersion. Details regarding the use of the polarizing microscope may be found in many excellent textbooks, such as those by Hartshorne and Stuart S and Wahlstrom. ... 

An optical compensatory sheet comprises a transparent support, an orientation layer and an optically anisotropic layer in this order. The optically anisotropic layer is formed from discotic liquid crystal molecules. The discotic liquid crystal molecule comprises a triphenylene nucleus and six cinnamoyl side chains. The optically anisotropic layer has a high refractive anisotropy in the range of 0.065 to 0.16. 

The index of refraction of most polymers is greater parallel to the chain than normal to the molecular axis. Substances showing this anisotropy of refractive index are said to be birefringent. 

Microscopes are also classified by the type of information they present size, shape, transparency, crystallinity, color, anisotropy, refractive indices and dispersion, elemental analyses, and duorescence, as well as infrared, visible, or ultraviolet absorption frequencies, etc. One or more of these microscopes are used in every area of the physical sciences, ie, biology, chemistry, and physics, and also in their subsciences, mineralogy, histology, cytology, pathology, metallography, etc. 

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. 

Perhaps the most astounding property of this material is the high degree of transparency. This arises first because both molecules and crystals show little optical anisotropy and secondly because crystalline and amorphous zones have similar densities. They also have similar refractive indices and there is little scatter of light at the interfaces between amorphous and crystalline zones. 

Experimental determinations are far from straightforward, especially if the molecule has little or no symmetry. The mean value can be deduced from the refractive index of a gas, whilst Kerr effect experiments give some idea of the anisotropy. 

Kashiwagi et al.10) determined the second moment anisotropy for the one-way drawn polyethylene terephthalate sheets discussed above. The three lattice sums S00, S2q and S4o were calculated from the crystal structure determination of Daubeny et al., the proton positions being calculated on the basis of known bond angles and lengths. The isotropic lattice sum S00 was adjusted to a value consistent with the measured isotropic second moment of 10.3G2. The values for P200, P220 etc. were then used to predict the optical anisotropy. The predicted refractive indices for the sheets of draw ratio 2 1 and 2.5 1 are shown in Fig. 10, together with the experimental... 

Borst JW, Flink MA, van Hoek A, Visser AJWG (2005) Effects of refractive index and viscosity on fluorescence and anisotropy decays of enhanced cyan and yellow fluorescent proteins. JFluoresc 15 153-160... 

Chromophores with a rather high optical anisotropy are the merocyanines (77), especially in the cyanine limit with equal contributions of the apolar and zwitterionic resonance structures [319]. Thus, they also have been proposed as promising candidates for photorefractive systems based on molecular glasses. For 77, doped with a photosensitizer, a refractive index modulation of 0.01 at an electrical field of 22 V/pm was reported. 

A certain anisotropy of the refractive index along specific crystallographic axes indicates that the microstructures in the porous network are not spherical but somewhat elongated along the PS growth direction [Mi4], This birefringence is below 1% for micro PS, while it may reach values in the order of 10% for meso PS films formed on (110) oriented silicon wafers [Ko22]. 

Birefringence (or double refraction) is the decomposition of a light ray into two rays when it passes through certain types of crystalline material. This occurs only when the material is anisotropic, that is, the material has different characteristics in different directions. Amylose and amylopectin polymers are organized into a radially anisotropic, semicrystalline unit in the starch granule. This radial anisotropy is responsible for the distinctive... 

To obtain a measure of the dielectric constant and anisotropy of thin films, the refractive index of thin film samples was measured. It has been shown that the measured dielectric constant is approximately the square of the refractive index at 633 nm wavelength [the actual relationship is roughly e (refractive index) -i- 02.] and the anisotropy is obtained from the difference between the in-plane and out-of-plane refractive index [97]. The measured anisotropy of foamed polyimides is lower than that observed for non-foamed polyimides. In addition, a drop in refractive index of the samples was observed upon foaming. The polyimide PMDa/3FDA has a measured dielectric constant of ca. 2.9 at 70 °C. A foamed sample of PMDA/3FDA derived from copolymer 6f showed a drop in dielectric constant of 2.3 [97]. 

Note 1 The nematic liquid crystal must have a negative dielectric anisotropy (Af < 0), and a positive anisotropy (Aa > 0). The optical texture corresponding to the flow pattern consists of a set of regularly spaced, black and white stripes perpendicular to the initial direction of the director. These stripes are caused by the periodicity of the change in the refractive index for the extraordinary ray due to variations in the director orientation. 

In frequency regions where absorption is small the two indices of refraction , and n2 give rise to the phenomenon of double refraction. One of the most common uses for this property is in making wave retarders such as quarter-wave plates incident light linearly polarized with equal x and y field components is phase shifted upon transmission because of the two different phase velocities c/w, and c/n2. An entire field, usually referred to as crystal optics, arises out of this and further applications of crystal anisotropy. 

Physical properties of liquid crystals are generally anisotropic (see, for example, du Jeu, 1980). The anisotropic physical properties that are relevant to display devices are refractive index, dielectric permittivity and orientational elasticity (Raynes, 1983). A nematic LC has two principal refractive indices, Un and measured parallel and perpendicular to the nematic director respectively. The birefringence An = ny — rij is positive, typically around 0.25. The anisotropy in the dielectric permittivity which is given by As = II — Sj is the driving force for most electrooptic effects in LCs. The electric contribution to the free energy contains a term that depends on the angle between the director n and the electric field E and is given by... 

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