Automatic fringe analysis of two-beam interference patterns for measurement of refractive index and birefringence profiles of fibres

Automatic fringe pattern analysis is a powerful and inexpensive digital image-processing technique. Two-beam polarizing interference Pluta microscope [Pluta M. Opt Acta 1971;18:661, Pluta M. J Microsc 1972;96:309] is automated by the computer-aid via CCD camera and digital frame grabber. Software program is prepared to deal with the duplicated (separated and overlapped) Microinterferograms produced by two-beam polarizing microscope. It also gives an accurate and fast automatic measurement of refractive index and birefringence profiles for fibres. In this paper, the refractive index and birefringence profiles of two different types of fibres, basalt and polypropylene (PP) fibres are presented. A new method to determine the birefringence profile of fibres from non-duplicated microinterferogram is suggested. The cold drawing process for PP fibres is studied.