Analyzing microtextured regions of optically anisotropic materials

A process for analyzing microtextured regions comprising:

• positioning a sample at multiple designated discrete rotational angles relative to a polarization axis of a polarizer;
• illuminating the sample at each designated rotational angle with a polarized monochromatic light;
• capturing images of the illuminated sample at each designated rotational angle;
• flat-field correcting each captured image to produce flat-field corrected images;
• performing image rotation of the flat-field corrected images to produce rotation-corrected images;
• performing image registration of the rotation-corrected images to produce registered images;
• extracting amplitude values and phase values of an intensity modulation at each pixel from the registered images;
• correlating inclination of an optic axis to the extracted amplitude values;
• correlating azimuth of the optic axis to the extracted phase values;
• and
• quantifying microtextured regions (MTRs) from the azimuth and inclination.