MEASUREMENT OF MECHANICAL DEFORMATION OF DIELECTRIC FIBERS BY A LIGHT-SCATTERING METHOD

This paper describes an experimental method to detect quantitative changes of both refractive index and diameter of unclad dielectric fibres, such as fused silica fibre and nylon 6 fibre, due to tensile stress. The technique employed here is based on the variation in the position of a fringe in back-scattered light, which is generated when a laser beam is incident at a right angle to the axis of the fibre. This procedure makes it possible to measure refractive index, diameter and ellipticity to within an accuracy of 0.048%, 2.6% and 0.05%, respectively. © 1979 Chapman and Hall Ltd.