Determination of ordinary and extraordinary refractive indices of nematic liquid crystals by using wedge cells

A new accurate and fast interference method for determining ordinary and extraordinary refractive indices of nematic liquid crystals is presented and discussed. The method relies on microscopic measurements of distances between interference fringes appearing in polarised parallel coherent monochromatic light beam transmitted normally to the surfaces through a wedge cell filled with a nematic. Both glass plates confining the cell are coated with a partly transparent thin film of metal which is deposited by evaporation in vacuum. Owing to the multiple reflections between the surfaces and a small edge angle, the interference fringes observed near the wedge apex edge are sharp and equidistant. To apply this method one needs only small amount of an investigated liquid crystal. Basic mathematical formulae and results of an experiment are briefly discussed.

Spectral sensitivity of the goldfish Torus longitudinalis

We measured the photopic spectral sensitivity of multiunit activity in the torus longitudinalis and optic tectum of goldfish. Since negative contrast stimuli are most effective for exciting torus longitudinalis, spiking activity was evoked by the shadow of a disc moving through a monochromatic light beam projected upon a screen. The amount of activity evoked in torus longitudinalis generally increased with the monochromatic stimulus radiance at the same rate for all wavelengths, indicating a univariant response. Spiking activity in tectum, however, increased at different rates across the spectrum, indicating color-dependent responses. The action spectra for torus longitudinalis were all similar and relatively flat as expected of a homogeneous, broad-band luminance processing system, and about 1 log unit more sensitive than the tectal action spectra. The latter generally displayed sharp peaks and dips in sensitivity indicative of opponent processing.

Interaction between collinear asymmetric cracks

Thin strips made of perspex and containing two collinear internal cracks of different length were subjected to tension. The thickness variation of the strips was depicted by the reflected-shadow method, in which a coherent monochromatic light beam, emitted from a helium-neon gas laser, was partly reflected from the rear surface of the specimen. The light rays emerging from the plate, which were twice refracted along the thickness and reflected on the rear surface of the plate, were retarded according to Favre's and Neumann's law. The retarded light rays were focused on a caustic surface which depicted the boundary between the constrained area surrounding the crack tip and the remainder of the plate. In this paper two asymmetric collinear internal cracks of different lengths were studied and the interaction between these cracks was evaluated by measuring the variation of the diameter and the distortion of the shape of the caustics for various ratios of crack lengths.

Local Yielding Around a Crack Tip in Plexiglas

An optical method was developed to study the highly strained region surrounding small edge cracks in brittle transparent materials loaded in tension. Interference of the partially reflected coherent monochromatic light beam from the front and back surfaces of the specimen prepared from an optically isotropic and inert material, gave a fringe pattern which depicted the thickness variation of the plate in the neighborhood of the crack. The fringe pattern consisted of a dense pattern surrounding the crack tip which was separated from the rest by a distinct bright envelope. It was shown for the material studied that the limiting envelope was a circle which, when projected to a screen, became an epicycloid. The evolution of the geometric characteristics of the highly strained zone with increasing load was studied, up to the critical load for a rapid crack propagation. The data obtained yielded an insight on the mechanism of fracture in brittle materials.

Paper 10: Measurement of an Average Size and Number of Droplets during Spontaneous Condensation of Supersaturated Steam

This paper presents the results of measurements to determine the average size and number of droplets which appear during spontaneous condensation of expanding undercooled steam. The measurements were carried out in a non-symmetric convergent–divergent nozzle for three expansion rates, , of 2000, 5000, and 8000 units per second, and pressure in the Wilson region of 0·4–1·5 bar. The method is based on the measurement of monochromatic light beam intensity attenuation when passing through a layer of wet steam of length l (width of the nozzle) and static pressure variation through the nozzle axis. The photometric method was verified by measuring the droplet sizes in sulphur emulsion. The average size and number of droplets during spontaneous condensation were found to be dependent on the expansion rate and pressure in the Wilson region, and the results of the measurement are in qualitative agreement with those obtained by Gyarmathy. The average droplet size measured by the photometric method is about 25–60 per cent greater than the corresponding values of Gyarmathy. The droplet size measuring error, determined by an approximate analysis, was found to be in the range 15–30 per cent.