Browsing by Author "Maina, S. N."

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    Interferometry Analysis of Cellophane Birefringence
    (Scientific Research Publishing, 2013-10) Karimi, P. M.; Maina, S. N.; Rurimo, G. K.; Kinyua, D. M.; Ominde, C. F.
    This paper reports on a simple approach of determining the ability of a transparent material, such as cellophane to rotate the direction of polarization of a light beam. In order to determine the birefringence of such a material, a Mach-Zehnder interferometer is used to generate interference patterns when the cellophane sheet is mounted on one arm such as to intercept a portion of the laser beam. The recorded interferograms show a phase shift which is calculated to be 0.98π radians. By rotating the cellophane sheet on the object beam, the fringe separation is measured for different angles and the values used to calculate the ordinary and extraordinary refractive indices as 1.4721 ± 0.0002 and 1.4680 ± 0.0002 respectively at 632.8 nm wavelength. A surface error of approximately λ/16 (peak to valley) is measured from the recorded interferograms. Because of its sufficient birefringence and small thickness of 24 μm, cellophane can be used to fabricate special polarization pupil masks by cutting and aligning different cellophane structures appropriately.
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    Thermal Stress Monitoring on Piston Rings by Real Time Holographic Interferometry
    (Scientific Research Publishing, 2013) Karimi, P. M.; Maina, S. N.; Rurimo, G. K.; Kinyua, D. M.; Ominde, C. F.
    In this paper, real time holographic Interferometry (RTHI) technique was used to monitor the thermal stress on the piston rings. The piston rings holograms were recorded and the holographic plate replaced on the holder after development. The piston ring was subjected to thermal stress as it was illuminated by Laser beam acting as the object beam. This process led to generation of interferograms which were captured by a CCD camera at different temperatures. The captured interferograms were analyzed using atmosfringe version 3.3 software. From the analysis, the peak to valley (P-V) aberrations measured for each of the piston ring varied for the same temperature value. The P-V aberrations ranging from 0.0128λ to 1.2989λ were obtained. From this result, it was evident that the three rings on the piston had different unique structural characteristics due to their function.