Optical polymers are recognized for their high transparency, raised flexibility, low cost, and good film-forming ability; hence, they introduce a multitude of benefits in a wide range of devices, such as information storage, displays, optical communications, and filters. Among the optical properties, birefringence is an essential parameter in practical cases that demand the control of the state of polarization of light. This review is focused on describing some fundamental and applicative aspects concerning the optical birefringence of the polymer materials. First, elementary notions depicting the phenomenon of light double refraction in macromolecular media are provided. Furthermore, the most relevant optical techniques to determine birefringence are reviewed by highlighting the working principle and mathematical basis for computing this parameter. Then, a series of investigations of optically birefringent polymers are described, summarizing the most utilized approaches to induce light double refraction in such materials. The selected results are analyzed in relation to the pursued applications. In the end, the future of this scientific domain is briefly presented by establishing the research paths that need further exploration. Moreover, the novel directions that could be formulated and might contribute to certain considerable advancements in the materials employed in the modern optical technologies are mentioned.

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) films are the subject of intensive research because of great interest in using them in applications, especially in medicine. From an optical point of view, PET films with a low degree of stretching can be considered uniaxial materials, for which the determination of the linear birefringence and its dispersion is very important. Two methods were applied here for the estimation of these parameters: the ellipsometric method and the channeled spectra method. The ellipsometric method uses monochromatic radiation; therefore, the linear birefringence of the PET films is determined for a given value of the radiation wavelength. The channeled spectra method allows for the estimation of the linear birefringence and its dispersion for a large range of wavelengths in the visible spectrum. A decrease in both parameters with the increase in the wavelength was recorded. To evidence the microstructure of PET films and the conformational changes induced by elongation and to evaluate the degree of orientation, a polarized infrared spectral study in attenuated total reflection (ATR-FTIR) mode was performed. The dichroic ratio (between the absorbance measured with linearly polarized radiation parallel and orthogonal relative to the stretching direction, respectively) and the ATR absorbance ratio for the machine direction (MD) and transversal direction (TD) configurations both for the stretched and unstretched PET samples were measured.

Sudan derivatives are widely used as dyes for foods, textiles, plastics, paper, and cosmetics. The wavenumbers in the maximum of the electronic absorption bands of two Sudan derivatives in solvents with varying physicochemical properties were correlated with microscopic and macroscopic parameters of solution components. The molecular parameters of the Sudan derivatives in the excited state were estimated using solvatochromic and quantum-mechanical calculations.

The results obtained both in quantum chemical computation and in solvatochromic study of pyridinium di-carbethoxy methylid (PCCM) are correlated in order to estimate the electric dipole moment in the excited state of this molecule. This estimation is made by a variational method in the hypothesis that the molecular polarizability does not change in time of the absorption process. Ternary solutions of PCCM in protic binary solvents are used here, both establishing the contribution of each type of interaction to the spectral shift and to characterize the composition of the first solvation shell of PCCM. Results are compared with those obtained before for other binary solvents. The difference between the interaction energies in molecular pairs of PCCM-active solvent and PCCM-less active solvent was also estimated based on the cell statistical model of the ternary solutions.

The possibility to characterize the electronic excited state of a spectrally active molecule based only on the solvatochromic study of electronic absorption spectra is demonstrated. The values of the regression coefficients given the contribution of universal interactions to the spectral shift and their theoretically established dependences on the solute molecule microscopic parameters are used. The values of the dipole moment, polarizability, and ionization potential in the ground electronic state of a spectrally active molecule are established by quantum mechanical methods. Two azo dye molecules are chosen in order to exemplify this method.