Determination of optical properties, dispersion, and structural parameters of poly(ethylene terephthalate) fibers using automatic variable wavelength interferometry technique

Abstract

Automatic variable wavelength interferometry (VAWI) is used in combination with a Pluta double refracting polarizing interference microscope for measuring the spectral dispersion parameters of the refractive indices of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) highly oriented yarn fibers (1000 denier/250 filaments). The resulting data are utilized to calculate the spectral dispersion and structural parameters such as Cauchy's constants, the dispersion energy, the oscillation energy, the density, the mean polarizability of the monomer unit, the number of monomer units per unit volume, the dielectric constant, the electric susceptibility, the optical orientation function, and the electric polarizability constant. Microinterferograms are given for illustration. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 89: 1737–1742, 2003