An improved method for the measurement of strong flow birefringence

An improved procedure is proposed to solve the problem of measuring strong birefringence on flowing samples which have a retardation larger than /2 The procedure can be applied to devices which are based on the modulation of the polarization vector with a high-speed rotating half-wave plate. It uses two optical configurations which have different responses to the retardation. By combining the information obtained from the two configurations, one can easily and accurately determine the actual retardation of the sample, irrespective of the quadrant in which the measured retardation is located, provided the sample is isotropic. This technique can also overcome the problem of large errors occurring in the vicinity of = (2m+1)/2 due to the limited sensitivity around these values of . The use of the technique is illustrated with measurements on an isotropic solution of poly(benzyl glutamate) in m-cresol, which is strongly birefringent during shear flow.