Polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography for ceramic materials inspection

Abstract

Ceramics production is looking for a fast, reliable and non-destructive method that can be implemented on site for defect detection and analysis. In this paper we present polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) as a method for defect inspection. The proposed extensions to standard OCT provide additional information for complete characterization of a tested object. We compare OCT and microscope imaging that can easily detect enamel layer defects. The object under test is a sample ceramic plate with several defects occurring in production process. The results of OCT imaging show those defects are only in the enamel layer without any effect on the potsherd layer.