FTIR investigations and modelling. Application to carbon fibre composites

The application of specular reflectance FTIR spectroscopy for the investigation of carbon fiber reinforced epoxy composites is discussed. The use of the general 4 x 4 matrix algorithm allows to determine the dielectric functions of the sample parallel and perpendicular to the optical axis. The parallel component shows a Drude like spectral behaviour of the carbon fiber, and the perpendicular component is mainly determined by the polymer