Observation of Polymer Birefringence in Near-Field Optical Microscopy

Abstract

Birefringence, arising from locally preferred orientation of molecules or functional groups in polymeric and related materials has been observed in a near-field scanning optical microscope (NSOM) at suboptical spatial resolution. Our observations were successfully correlated to existing structural models of the samples, demonstrating the utility of birefringence observations in NSOM. We present data acquired from thin sections of a partially ordered polymer fiber (Kevlar) and a polymer dispersed small-molecule-liquid-crystal composite.