Spectral-domain measurement of photo-induced birefringence in polymer

摘要

We report a new method to study the photo-induced birefringence in polymers based on spectral fringes observed with white-light polarized light transmission. Here, a photo-induced birefringence in polymeric film was used to add a phase shift on the fringes pattern of one given reference thick waveplate. Basically, the period of the fringes and phase shift carry information about the thickness and birefringence of the reference waveplate and the film, respectively. The optical fringes were detected by a linear array spectrometer. We measured a birefringence induced by polarized argon-ion laser at 514 nm on azopolymer MDI-DR19 film.