Abstract
We describe experiments demonstrating the performance of a recently developed combined near-field and confocal polarization microscope, which was designed for imaging microstructure in soft anisotropic polymer films. Phase modulation (PM) of light (488 nm) is implemented in both near-field and confocal channels to increase sensitivity to birefringence. Images of radially symmetric objects, spherulites, in the polyethylene films confirmed the high performance of this microscope in imaging of both magnitude and sign of birefringence. On the other hand, PM images of the crosslinked polybutadiene films revealed unexpected domain structure that indicates heterogeneity in local chain deformations and alignments. It is shown that the domains are correlated with the local density fluctuations of crosslinks.
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