Dynamic measurement of stress optical behavior of three amorphous polymers

Abstract

In the present study, rheo-optical and mechanical properties of three amorphous polymers, i.e., PS (polystyrene), PC(polycarbonate) and COC(cyclo olefin copolymer), widely used for optical products have been investigated. Accurate measurement of stress optical coefficients and elastic modulus data across the glass transition region are essential for predicting optical anisotropy in many injection molded optical products like pickup lenses and waveguide in LCD module since the final products have both flow and thermal history from the melt to glass. To obtain stress optical behavior in wide range of frequency and temperature including rubbery, glassy and glass transition regime, frequency sweep tests with extensional bar and shear sandwich tools were undertaken. As a result, glassy and melt extreme values of stress optical coefficient of PS and PC were evaluated as well as master plots in wide frequency region. The sign change of stress optical coefficient was shown clearly for PS as the frequency increased. On the other hand, the sign of stress optical coefficient over the whole frequency region is always positive for PC. For COC’s of different composition, even though the glass transition temperature can vary, the stress optical coefficient of COC’s with different composition stays almost constant at two extremes.