Polarisation-sensitive optical coherence tomography for material characterisation and testing

Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is an emerging technology for high-resolution non-contact imaging of semi-transparent structures. Originally developed for medical diagnostics, we extend the OCT-technique to problems posed in material testing and characterisation. Layer thickness and refractive indices as well as internal structures of polymer parts have been determined within this study. An extension of OCT, namely polarisation-sensitive OCT (PS-OCT) has been used to identify regions of increased anisotropy within injection-moulded plastic parts and to determine quantitatively internal strain within translucent material in a non-destructive way.