Determination of the optical and geometrical properties of fibres having skin–core structure

A method is suggested to determine both the refractive index and the transverse sectional shape and area of fibres, having skin–core structure, at the same time for the same region of the fibre. The method depends on using a fibre rotator device attached with Pluta polarizing interference microscope, to record the variation of the fibre thickness at each angle of rotation. Nylon 6 fibres having skin–core structure were used in this study. Beck-line method was used to determine the refractive index of the skin for light vibrating parallel and perpendicular to the fibre axis. To confirm the results of the suggested method, the optical microscope was used to determine the transverse sectional shapes of bundles of nylon 6 fibres. The mean refractive indices of the skin and core of nylon 6 fibres were determined. Microinterferograms are given for illustration.